A medical school in Sussex County? Leaders weigh in on the need for more doctors in southern Delaware

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Southern Delaware’s Sussex County is at a crossroads. Its population is booming, yet its health care system is struggling to keep pace.

Patients often encounter long wait times, a shortage of primary providers and limited access to specialists. That has made the availability of medical care a growing concern. To address that shortage, there’s a new push to establish a medical school in Sussex County — and the first medical school in the state. The idea has lawmakers, health care leaders and economic developers weighing in on the potential benefits and challenges.

“All Delawareans deserve access to quality care. We believe that’s a basic right. But our state is certainly not without challenges,” said Brian Frazee, president and CEO of the Delaware Healthcare Association. “We’re the sixth-oldest and eighth-fastest-growing state in the nation. And we know that we utilize more health care services as we age, and this will continue to increase the demand on our health care workforce.”

Chris Weeks, a founding member of the Sussex Economic Development Action Committee, helped lead a $100,000 feasibility study to determine whether a medical school in Sussex County would be possible. He said the findings reaffirmed what many suspected.

“It’s estimated that we need probably about 177 primary care physicians right now. If we added 177 primary care physicians, we would just be meeting the standard of care for the county,” Weeks said. “People are moving here, and so that’s getting more and more. We would need 75 doctors in order to remove the health professional shortage designation.”

Weeks said there’s just one primary care physician per 2,100 Sussex residents. That’s a significantly higher ratio than in Kent and New Castle counties.

Local leaders believe that bringing a medical school to Sussex County could be part of the solution. State Sen. Russell Huxtable, who represents the 6th District, said a medical school could help attract more doctors to a place that desperately needs them.

“One of the thoughts that people are having is if we establish a medical school in the fastest-growing county where we have additional challenges as far as health care’s concerned … it could help recruit those folks,” he said. “The three hospitals that are in Sussex County would be a great place for those folks to have their residencies, and it could help build the network of medical capacity within the county.”

While a medical school could help, Weeks emphasized that building one from the ground up is not realistic. Instead, the study suggested a partnership with an existing institution to open a branch campus and for hospitals in the area to support each other.

“What it did suggest, and it’s been done in several places around the country, is you align yourself with a current medical school that would consider opening … a branch campus,” Weeks said. “The critical infrastructure element, if you will, for a medical school [branch] is clinical rotations, clinical practice to get into a hospital and actually work with patients.”

The study found that no single health care system in the county — Beebe Healthcare, Bayhealth or TidalHealth — has enough resources on its own to support a medical school. However, if these three systems collaborate and combine their clinical resources for education, they would have the necessary capacity to make it possible, according to the study.

Despite enthusiasm for the idea, finding the money to build and sustain a medical school remains a major challenge.

“Probably the biggest challenge is just simply money,” Weeks said. “It’s just simply the money to build a medical school, simply the money to help the hospitals grow their medical education programs. Those two things, just the financing alone, that’s kind of a big lift.”

Huxtable agreed, explaining that significant financial investment from the state would be necessary.

“A medical school is not inexpensive, and there will need to be a heavy state investment,” he said. “I’m not sure if people know exactly where all those dominoes are falling yet. So we are still having conversations.”

The effort to bring a medical school to Sussex County is still in the early stages. Weeks said the next step is to formalize partnerships between hospitals, medical institutions and state officials.

“Ultimately, we need to establish an entity that’s going to be the Delaware medical school. It’s easy to say, but doing it is going to be tougher,” he said.

As those conversations continue, the shortage of doctors in Delaware is not improving on its own. Whether the solution comes by way of a new medical school or other workforce investments, leaders agree that action needs to be taken soon.