Stephen Jones Stresses the Need to Keep Physicians in NJ

Steve Adubato goes one-on-one with Stephen Jones, Chief Academic Officer for RWJBarnabas Health, about the importance of continuing the development of medical education opportunities in the state, and the increasing need to keep these well-trained physicians in NJ after their residencies are completed.

1/23/17 #2007

 

 

 

 

Excerpt:

"Stephen Jones is Chief Academic Officer for RWJBarnabas Health. Good to see you my friend. Good to be with you again, Steve. And I also should say, full disclosure, we are both Rutgers fans. Absolutely. You are hardcore though. Big Ten. That's a good... that's the right thing? Big Ten is a great thing. For Rutgers Athletics and New Jersey. And you predict good things? I predict very good things. We will grow. Rutgers Football. Rutgers Women's Basketball. Rutgers Men's Basketball. I'm a total Rutgers Athletic Geek. But you're here to talk about healthcare? [laughter] I'm here to talk about healthcare at RWJBarnabas Health. Our commitment to academic medicine particularly, Steve. Yeah let's talk about that. Is there a physician shortage in the state of New Jersey? And in the region? And if not, why do people keep saying that? Steve, we need more physicians, particularly primary care physicians. New Jersey has great medical schools, and RWJBarnabas Health partners with many great educational institutions, including Rutgers. And medicine in the future will work with teams. Advanced practice providers like nurse practitioners, physician assistants, pharmacists, we need more primary care physicians. We need to train more physicians. And we need to support that team, cause they will work in a team in the future. But here's the thing. I've also... we've had many offline conversations. I've also done leadership development over at RWJBarnabas Health, particularly with physicians, and talk to them about leadership and communication, and one of the things that struck me is that there's a whole discussion about how we train physicians. Isn't there a whole discussion about the way physicians are trained for the future? And that the healthcare landscape is changing such that physicians need to be trained differently? Sure. Or am I making too much of that? No, no. Absolutely. There are dramatic changes. One, we're not in the bed business any longer. We're promoting wellness. What do you mean by the "bed business"? What does that mean? Steve, I've been a hospital administrator for 40 years. Early in my career, the idea was when people got sick, they went into a bed in a hospital. Today, we're really focused. We, the medical industry, hospitals, on keeping people well and promoting health. We want people to stay in their home, stay on their job, stay in their diverse communities that we serve, and we want to support 'em in that way. Not just when they get sick. So it's more outpatient care than inpatient care. It's more preventive medicine than the high tech. We've got it all. We've got the ICU's and we will continue to grow them, and we have a real..."