The Richard King Mellon Foundation has awarded a $1 million gift to Phoebe Foundation to address the critical shortages of family care physicians in Southwest Georgia. The gift is earmarked for construction of housing for medical students training at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital.

“This incredible donation will benefit our entire region,” said Larry Hockman, chairman of the Phoebe Foundation Board of Directors. “We are deeply grateful to the Mellon Foundation responding to this need and recognizing the positive impact this facility will ultimately have on the health of our communities.”

The proposed 25-unit Medical Student Housing gated community will be located on 4^th Avenue on  Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital’s main campus. Phoebe Putney Health System already owns the property, which is directly behind the Family Tree child development center. Students from Georgia Regents University, the University of Georgia Pharmacy School, and other medical students studying at Phoebe will have the option to live there at nominal cost.

“The impact of this Mellon gift will reverberate through future generations of Southwest Georgians as they seek medical care close to home,” said Joel Wernick, Phoebe CEO.  “Our experience in our residency and training programs has shown physicians tend to practice where they train. This gift helps us continue our strategy of keeping primary care close to home where it is most effective.”

Wernick said being able to build housing is a key piece of the puzzle as we work to solve vexing shortages of medical resources in rural Southwest Georgia.

Georgia ranked 39^th in the country in the ratio of doctors per 100,000 population in 2010, the latest year for which data are available, according to the Georgia Board of Physician Workforce.  By 2030, Georgia is projected to fall 5000 physicians short of estimated need

This is the largest gift to Phoebe Foundation from the Mellon Foundation, which also gave $500,000 to the Willson Hospice House campaign in 2006.