“I think there has to be a tie to the community for a physician to want to be here,” says Scott Crouch, chief executive officer at Ozarks Community Health Center, Bolivar, Missouri. “NHSC [National Health Service Corps] can help some, but it’s not the draw it once was.”
Physicians and dentists who interview at the Ozarks Community Health Center often like the facilities and the area but don’t want to live in a rustic locale. “Most medical schools are in bigger cities,” Mr. Crouch says. “So it’s hard to get them into a rural environment.”
In some cases, physicians opt to go the community health route but choose to work in a city, even if it means they’re going to earn less. That was the case for Kevin King, MD, 33, a general pediatrician at St. John’s Community Health Center, Los Angeles. Dr. King knew he wanted to work in a community health center after completing a residency at a Medicaid clinic.
A rewarding career
“I find my work very rewarding,” Dr. King says. “Working in Medicaid can be difficult, and there are many barriers to care. It’s a lot more work to get things done, but the rewards come from the patients.”
That said, Dr. King adds he wouldn’t have been able to take this job without access to a loan forgiveness program that helps him manage his student-loan debt. “Without that, I’d probably have to find work in a private-pay population, making more money,” he says. “Loan forgiveness allowed me to choose this career path.”
Dr. King says he earns between $150,000 and $200,000 annually. That’s significantly less than the $243,000 median pediatrician salary in Los Angeles, according to Salary.com. Still, Dr. King says he wouldn’t trade his job for a more lucrative one.
“In medicine, there are so many different career paths you can take after residency training,” he says. “Finding one that brings you joy in what you do every day is more valuable than any amount of money.”
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.