LAKELAND, Fla. — Access to healthcare is a continued concern in Polk County, as the ratio of physicians to patients is stretched.
Andilys Andino has known since she was 12 years old that she wanted to be a doctor.
“Very important to me to be a value to the community,” said Andino. “I really want to give a voice to patients and let them know that we’re really here to help them.”
The resident physician is well on her way to fulfilling that mission. Andino is part of the first batch of physicians in training at Lakeland Regional Health’s newest Kathleen campus.
The facility, which just opened its doors last week, will allow family medicine residents like Andino to provide direct care to patients.
“In Florida, it’s really hard to find a primary care that treats mom, dad, the siblings as well as babies. This unique opportunity that Lakeland Regional Health was providing in seeing the whole family really drew my attention,” Andino said.
The Kathleen Road campus offers a wide array of care and healthcare services. It includes 52 state-of-the-art patient exam rooms and four procedure rooms. The new location will offer primary care, family medicine, lab services, and specialty care services in neurology, pulmonology, urology, trauma medical offices, infectious disease, and endocrinology.
The new facility is part of the Lakeland Regional’s plan to increase the number of physicians in the area.
In Polk County, there is one primary care provider for every 2,000 patients, compared with 1:1,000 patients in other counties.
“We can not hire physicians fast enough in this location. As soon as we hire folks, their panels fill. So we need to continue to increase that pipeline both from a primary care standpoint as well as specialty care,” said Dr. Nancy Finnigan, Graduate Medical Education Institutional Official.
The residency program currently has 70 resident physicians and is accredited to train close to 200, allowing Lakeland Regional to act as a funnel for the next generation of doctors and increase access to healthcare for under-served residents.
About 50% of residents stay in the community and state where they graduated their residency program. So by having a Graduate Medical Education program in the area, we are very likely to recruit some of those physicians to stay here,” Finnigan said.
