Oklahoma receives two grants for graduate medical education

Two multimillion dollar grants will be awarded to OU and OSU to help curtail the shortage of medicaid physicians. 

The Department of Health and Human Services announced on Friday that Oklahoma has earned two grants from the Medical Student Education Program, totaling $9.25 million over four years.

The University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University received the grants that will allow them to support physician education to care for Oklahoma’s Medicaid recipients.

The program, created by Sen. Jim Inhofe and Congressman Tom Cole’s provision in the FY19 appropriations bill, provides grants to support graduate medical education in rural states.

“Oklahoma’s medical schools provide needed medical care for Oklahomans all across the state,” Inhofe said. “We needed to make sure they had the support to provide high-quality care, serve our state’s Medicaid population and recruit graduate medical students.”

More than 100 rural hospitals have closed since 2010 and hundreds more are vulnerable. As of December 2018, there were more than 7,000 areas in the U.S. with health professional shortages, nearly 60 percent of which were in rural areas.

Gov. Kevin Stitt said the awarding of the two grants complements the state’s investment of $58.9 million for fiscal year 2020 to recruit and train medical professionals to serve across Oklahoma.

“Certainly, the best way to get and keep exceptional Oklahoma doctors is to teach, train and mentor them in Oklahoma,” Cole said. “Through the significant grant funding awarded, I am proud and grateful that the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University will have greater resources to invest in our state’s future doctors.”