Due to rapid growth, areas of North Carolina are facing a steeper shortage of primary care physicians than other areas of the country. The Center for Personalized Education for Physicians (CPEP) offers a solution to this problem by helping inactive and retired physicians reenter the workforce through its Reentry to Clinical Practice program. In July 2014, CPEP opened an office housed in the North Carolina Medical Society (NCMS) Center for Leadership in Medicine building in downtown Raleigh to better service physicians and other clinicians on the East Coast.

According to a recent report on betterdoctor.com, Raleigh and Greensboro are among the top U.S. cities facing a physician shortage. Raleigh has the sixth lowest density of doctors in the nation with one primary care physician for every 2,518 residents. Overall, 78 out of 100 counties in North Carolina qualify as Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSA’s), because of shortages of primary medical care.

Retraining inactive physicians costs less than sending a new physician through medical school and takes a lot less time—a few weeks to several months, compared to the seven to 10 years required to train new physicians.

Since July, CPEP’s Raleigh office has worked with 35 health care providers from 19 states. Services provided include physician reentry evaluations, clinical competency assessments and the ProBE ethics remediation course.

Recently, the North Carolina Medical Board changed its reentry requirements. The new policy requires physician license applicants who have not practiced clinical medicine for two or more years to complete a formal examination or assessment approved by the Board, and follow all applicable recommendations. To learn more about the CPEP reentry program visit the CPEP website or call 919-238-6436.