Adopting academic rank in a rural community practice affiliated with an academic medical center.

Background: United States rural community-based practices are increasingly participating in undergraduate and graduate medical education to train the workforce of the future, and are required or encouraged to provide academic appointments to physicians who have typically not held an academic appointment. Mechanisms to identify faculty and award academic appointments across an entire health system have not been reported.

Methods: Our rural community regional practice identified academic appointments as important for participating in medical education. Over a three-year period, our regional leadership organized a formal education committee that led a variety of administrative changes to promote the adoption of academic rank. Data on attainment of academic appointments was obtained from our Academic Appointment and Promotion Committee, and cross referenced with data from our regional human resources department using self-reported demographic data.

Results: We describe a successful adoption strategy for awarding academic rank in a rural regional practice in which the percentage of physician staff with academic rank increased from 41.1 to 92.8% over a 3-year period.

Conclusions: Our experience shows that process changes can rapidly increase and then sustain academic appointments for physicians over time. More rural health systems may want to consider the use of academic rank to support educational programs while enhancing physician satisfaction, recruitment and retention.