Campbell Partnership
Harnett Health System, Inc. and Campbell University have established a formal, strategic partnership to transform healthcare in Harnett County and beyond. Both organizations will collaboratively work to achieve all aspects of a major and comprehensive healthcare community.
It’s paramount in today’s healthcare climate for healthcare organizations to be successful that they build strategically important and stable partnerships to enhance the quality of care, reduce the costs of care, and expand the scope of healthcare services across a significant geographical region. Harnett Health’s partnership accomplishes all three goals to ensure healthcare is developed throughout our area.
While the partnership will take on many forms as opportunities arise, the first two key actions are:
- to ensure that the need for physicians, especially in primary care, is effectively addressed
- to promptly establish a residency program to train and keep physicians in the area after residency training
The Jerry M. Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine at Campbell University welcomed its first class of 160 students in August 2013. Students will spend the first two years learning on the Harnett County university campus in state-of-the-art simulation and anatomy labs before being assigned to training opportunities in regional community hospitals. Harnett Health and Campbell University are working together to have a Campbell Residency Program with Harnett Health in place for 2015 to provide the continued training for these students.
Campbell University believes this model is ideal for training primary care physicians, particularly physicians who will practice in rural and underserved (HPSA) areas. Placing medical students in community hospitals for their third and fourth years and having residency programs available once they graduate will enable these students to put down roots and become the next generation of physicians who practice in this community. These students will be our pediatricians, our family doctors, our internists, our surgeons, our OB/GYNs and our emergency medical physicians.
The ability for Campbell University to supply quality providers of care and the ability for Harnett Health to offer the chance for those providers to practice medicine is a marriage of tremendous benefit to citizens.
However, the partnership doesn’t end with the training of primary care physicians. Campbell University is providing comprehensive training for North Carolina’s next generation of healthcare professionals. With an approach that emphasizes interprofessional training among students in Campbell’s pharmacy, physician assistant, clinical research, physical therapy, public health, and medical programs, Harnett Health and Campbell University are indeed poised to transform healthcare in Harnett County and beyond.
The organizations have already contributed significantly to this transformation through the opening of Central Harnett Hospital and the opening of the Jerry M. Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine. These aligned efforts are the largest single capital investment in Harnett County’s history and is a tremendous invest in the growth of healthcare in the area and in making a major positive impact on the local economy.
The partnership represents years of hard work from both Campbell University and Harnett Health as the organizations continue to improve access to quality healthcare in Eastern North Carolina through training and job opportunities for providers. It is also a huge benefit to citizens to stay close to home for their healthcare needs.