By 2030, Louisiana is projected to have the third-worst physician-shortage ratio in the U.S., with an undersupply of 100 doctors for every 100,000 people.
Meanwhile, 60 of Louisiana’s 64 parishes have primary care health-professional shortage areas. This includes the entirety of St. Martin Parish, which on various websites is touted as “where Cajun began” and “the heart of Acadiana.”
It is also the home of St. Martinville Family Medicine, an Ochsner Health facility, where a new family physician aims to make a difference in the community she grew up in.
Mary Claire Curet, MD, graduated summa cum laude from Louisiana State University (LSU) and earned her medical degree from the LSU Health Shreveport School of Medicine. She recently returned home after finishing her residency training at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler.
“I've always wanted to come back to South Louisiana,” Dr. Curet said. “I love the culture here. It's so unique. And it's where all my family is. And so I always knew I was going to come back and practice here.”
She is the first doctor to complete the Ochsner Physician Scholars program in which medical students from LSU Health Shreveport and one other institution receive financial support in exchange for committing to practice in an Ochsner Health facility for five years after completing a residency program in family medicine, internal medicine primary care, internal medicine pediatrics primary care (dual certification), neurology or psychiatry.
For students attending LSU Health Shreveport, the program awards $120,000 in total, with each student receiving $30,000 for each year of medical school.
The program's goal is to support and develop talented medical students who are committed to serving their communities, particularly for populations with limited access to health services.
Ochsner Health is a member of the AMA Health System Program, which provides enterprise solutions to equip leadership, physicians and care teams with resources to help drive the future of medicine.
Coming back home
“I actually didn't know I was the first person until this year, so it feels special,” Dr. Curet said. “But I don't feel like I'm any different than anyone else that graduated in my class. I just went for it.”
Dr. Curet said it was her mother who first gave her information about the Ochsner program, and she decided to apply because it “checked off all my boxes.”
“I knew I wanted to do primary care, I knew I wanted to come back and practice in South Louisiana, and so it just worked out for me,” she said. “It was just the perfect situation.”
When she learned that Ochsner Health was placing her at St. Martinville, the first people Dr. Curet told were her parents.
“They're all very excited to have me back home,” she said. “I have a huge family here.”
She has four siblings who live in the area, including a brother who is an emergency physician in a group practice that works at Ochsner Lafayette General Medical Center.
At St. Martinville Family Medicine, Dr. Curet works with a nurse practitioner and a three-person support staff. While she didn’t hang the traditional shingle with her name on it, people will know it’s where she practices.
“They are about to put my name on the building,” she said. “So that's a big step.”
The standard of care in physician well-being recognition
Institutions in this article have been honored by the Joy in Medicine™ Health System Recognition Program.
Seeing her own patients
Dr. Curet didn’t have a deluge of patients to meet her as she opened the door, but her arrival has also been heralded in local advertisements and she expects to be busier soon.
“Moving into this new practice in St. Martinville, I'm not replacing another doctor, so I really have to build a patient pool myself,” she said.
“I haven't really seen many patients in the first week, and I'm hoping that builds up pretty soon,” Dr. Curet said in an interview with the AMA in mid-August. “I can only hope it'll grow steadily. We'll see if that’s the case. But if I just get a ton of people at once, that would be OK—especially if I'm helping out this area where they need primary care doctors. So I'm here. I'm ready.”
Dr. Curet’s first patient in full-time practice didn’t know at the visit’s outset that they were her first patient, but Dr. Curet did eventually “break the news to them.”
“It went really well, so I hope they keep coming back,” Dr. Curet said. “I think they will. I think we created a good relationship.”
As a resident, Dr. Curet participated in several quality-improvement projects such as implementing a smoking-cessation program that included identifying patients who were at high risk for lung cancer.
Accompanied by pharmacists and nursing students, she also provided clinical services for patients without housing in Tyler on the first Saturday of each month.
“We were able to provide a lot of good care that way,” Dr. Curet said. “There's just a huge need for health care and not everyone can afford it and, sometimes just donating your time and being able to volunteer, is such a huge deal for people in that population.”
While growing up, Dr. Curet said she had a regular pediatrician and the rest of her family stayed relatively healthy, so accessing health care was not too much trouble.
But times have changed.
“After graduating residency and coming back, everyone's telling me they can't find any primary care doctors in all of Acadiana, so it's really hard for people to find access to care these days,” Dr. Curet said.
Making a positive impact
Eight Ochsner Physician Scholar awards have been given since the program started in 2021, with Dr. Curet becoming the first full-time Ochsner Health employee.
The others are at various stages of their education or training with three in residency—two in family medicine, one in psychiatry—and four in medical school with two declaring an interest in family medicine and two in psychiatry.
The program’s financial support offered “some comfort and peace of mind” and allowed Dr. Curet to focus on her studies and training, she said.
“Then I knew there wasn't any uncertainty of where I wanted to practice after my training,” she added. “I knew I wanted to come back to Acadiana, and I knew Ochsner would support me in finding my ideal practice location and it really helped me with that.”
Dr. Curet’s “return to Louisiana and her commitment to serving the people of St. Martinville is a testament to the impact of the Ochsner Physician Scholars Program,” according to Ochsner Lafayette General Regional Medical Director Amanda Logue, MD. “We are confident that she will make a significant difference in the health and well-being of our community. I couldn’t be more excited to have her practicing right here in Acadiana.”
Dr. Curet knows that she will be caring for many patients with type 2 diabetes and hypertension, but she expects that variety will be a significant part of her work experience.
“It'll be different for each patient,” Dr. Curet said. “I like the full broad scope of family medicine, so I'm pretty much planning on tackling every medical problem and anything I can do in this clinic without having to refer out, I'm happy to do.”
Women’s health, skin procedures and preventive medicine are some of the areas she hopes to focus on.
“I know that, for instance, in Acadiana, it's been really hard to get cervical cancer screening done because a lot of primary care providers don't really provide Pap smears and stuff like that,” Dr. Curet said.
“I do all those things and I'm hoping to broaden women's health care in the area,” she added. “I also have a passion for preventative health care too, so I hope to bring to the area more screenings and lifestyle medicine.”
