Contents tagged with border health
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Texas Family Physician of the Year urges House committee to invest in rural primary care workforce
By Jonathan Nelson
The House Public Health Committee of the Texas Legislature held a hearing this week focused on addressing health care access for communities along the Texas-Mexico border. TAFP’s Family Physician of the Year, Adrian Billings, MD, PhD, made the drive from his home in Alpine to Austin to provide his perspective on the great need for primary care investment in rural Texas.
“My work, although rewarding in so many ways, has been both exhausting and challenging because of the incredible need for care in my communities,” Billings told the committee. “Rural health care organizations such as critical access hospitals and rural clinics are like small football teams. We have very few, if any, additional staff on reserve sitting on the bench for relief. For example, our Alpine clinic today does not have a provider because I am here testifying.”
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