SC lacks primary care doctors. USC’s Greenville med school is working on it.

South Carolina needs more primary care doctors.

Projections estimate a shortage of 815 primary care physicians statewide by 2030, according to the Cicero Institute, a nonpartisan public policy organization. South Carolina also ranks 38th in the country for the availability of active primary care doctors.

The University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville created an accelerated-track program to increase the number of primary care physicians in South Carolina. The Primary Care Accelerated Track offers a three-year pathway for medical students to earn their doctor of medicine degrees. The program officially launched in July 2024 with an inaugural cohort of five students.

Dr. Frank Beacham, the program’s director, said PCAT offers an innovative approach to medical education, specifically tailoring the students’ instruction to family medicine. PCAT students will complete the coursework required for the traditional four-year program in three years.

Students in the PCAT program also begin clinical rotations in their first year of medical school. Most medical students don’t see the clinical environment until they are in their third year. Madison Pollock, a PCAT student, said the early clinical experience was one of the main aspects of the program that appealed to her.

“I feel like it has allowed me to see a tangible version of my growth,” she said. “Knowing that I’m now applying knowledge that I’ve learned in the classroom in the clinical space, connections that I couldn’t make in the first couple of weeks I was in the program is really cool to see.”

Pollock, a South Carolina native, said she decided to go into family medicine because it would allow her to care for both adults and children. She graduated from Clemson University in 2023 before starting medical school.

“My mom is a pediatrician, so she was one of my biggest inspirations there. When we lived in Laurens, she was one of the only pediatricians for miles,” Pollock said. “A lot of my earliest memories involve medicine. When I was little, I always said I wanted to be a doctor.”

After graduation, the medical students will complete a three-year residency program with Prisma Health. The health care system offers family medicine residency programs in Greenville, Seneca and Greer.

USC School of Medicine Greenville provides a full-tuition scholarship to PCAT students who agree to practice family medicine in South Carolina for four years after residency. Beacham said one reason medical school graduates decide not to go into family medicine is student loan debt.

“Students are graduating medical school with these mounting student loan debts and so when they see salaries and they are fearful of being able to repay this debt, they are drawn to higher-paying specialties,” Beacham said.

The PCAT students are currently wrapping up their first year of medical school. This summer, the students will enter their pediatric and surgery clerkships before returning to the classroom next fall. The first cohort is on track to become licensed primary care doctors by 2030.

Beacham said new medical students are being interviewed for the program’s second cohort. Up to six students will be enrolled in the innovative program each year. The medical school is also seeking additional funding to expand the program in the future to other primary care specialties such as internal medicine and pediatrics.