The L.A. Care Health Plan, the nation’s largest publicly operated health plan, announced Monday it is committing $5 million to the Keck Graduate Institute to support the launch of a school of medicine in Claremont aimed at recruiting and training a more compassionate, diverse group of doctors.
The KGI School of Medicine is intended to support a new pipeline of physicians, particularly primary care doctors, to serve low-income communities in need. The financial commitment is part of a broader initiative intended to address a shortage of highly-qualified physicians available to staff county practices and clinics that offer care regardless of a patient’s ability to pay.
“The KGI School of Medicine will serve as a pipeline for physicians into the L.A. County safety net,” L.A. Care CEO John Baackes said. “This commitment is an exciting addition to our Elevating the Safety Net initiative, and we are honored to support the launch of a new medical school in Los Angeles County. Ultimately, our members will greatly benefit from this pipeline of physicians and other providers who are passionate about caring for these communities.”
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends at least 60 primary care doctors for every 100,000 people, with 80 being preferable to ensure high-quality care. Los Angeles County has an estimated 56 primary care physicians per 100,000 people, according to the L.A. Care Health Plan.
The new medical school at the Keck Graduate Institute will tailor its admissions process to focus on local students passionate about improving health care for all and who reflect the county’s demographics. Dr. David Lawrence, who is leading the development and opening of the school and will act as its dean, said the institute will train doctors interested in serving vulnerable populations.
“Research has shown that who we recruit, where we recruit them from, and how and where we train them is critical in getting doctors to practice care in the communities that need them the most,” Lawrence said.
Students will be recruited from non-traditional pre-med programs, and the graduate school’s curriculum will include training in compassion, empathy and resilience and prepare doctors to understand how culture, language barriers, care access, food, housing, income security and geography affect healthcare outcomes, he said.
Lawrence, who served as the CEO and chairman of the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals from 1991 to 2002, said technology and analytics will allow new physicians to provide “precision health” that can detect conditions before symptoms occur to prevent illness and injury.
“We will prepare outstanding, rigorously trained community medicine specialist physicians with the backgrounds, maturity, intelligence, skills, ethics and compassion to confront the challenges that lie ahead,” the dean said.
Dr. Ricard Seidman, chief medical officer at L.A. Care, has joined the medical school’s board of governors.
“It’s exciting to be part of such an innovative program, strategically designed to recruit and train a diverse groups of students from communities underrepresented in medicine to increase the diversity of the healthcare workforce,” Seidman said. “I’m proud to work for a health plan that understands that the more physicians have in common with their patients, such as race and ethnicity, language, culture and religion, the better the outcomes.”
The L.A. Care Health Plan serves more than 2.2 million members countywide and offers four coverage plans, including Medi-Cal.