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About Us
The Georgia Higher Education Healthcare Initiative (GHEHI) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit co-founded by Jim Hull and Laurie Ott to strengthen Georgia’s healthcare workforce and improve health outcomes statewide. GHEHI collects and analyzes workforce data from Georgia and across the nation to assess the state’s standing, identify gaps, and highlight best practices. Working in partnership with higher education institutions, health systems, state agencies, and communities, GHEHI translates workforce data into clear, actionable insights. GHEHI's goal is to ensure Georgia has a sufficient, well-distributed healthcare workforce so all Georgians can access timely, high-quality care.
Our Mission
​GHEHI’s mission is to strengthen Georgians' health outcomes by improving the state’s healthcare workforce through independent research, data collection, and transparent sharing of information about physicians, nurses, and related training programs.
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GHEHI works to:
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Build a clear, accurate picture of Georgia’s healthcare workforce, including comparisons with other states.
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Identify and elevate effective strategies from Georgia and other states to recruit, train, and retain physicians and nurses, especially in underserved and rural communities.
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Make workforce data accessible to educators, health systems, policymakers, and the public so that decisions are grounded in evidence and aimed at improving health outcomes for all Georgians, with measurable outcomes.
The Georgia Higher Education Healthcare Initiative’s recommended strategies to significantly grow Georgia's Physician Workforce is to:​
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Better leverage Medicaid as a funding source to expand graduate medical education (GME) programs (Georgia lags behind almost every other state in this area).
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Organize and facilitate information sharing and learn from other states and facilitate collaboration among stakeholders to study best practices and identify where and how residency programs can grow, ensuring a balanced mix of specialties for both rural and urban needs.
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Facilitate medical education culture in Georgia by enhancing clinical training experiences and creating incentives for physicians to stay in Georgia for their GME.
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Adopt admission and contractual strategies as other states have done to retain medical graduates.
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Promote in-state residency opportunities to Georgia-trained MDs and DOs.
Our Story
The Georgia Higher Education Healthcare Initiative was created in December 2023 to address healthcare workforce shortages.
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The healthcare workforce shortage was a long time in the making. Despite decades of effort, Georgia continues to face a significant shortage of registered nurses (RNs) and medical doctors (MDs). Georgia ranks in the bottom 20% of states for healthcare professionals per capita. While medical and nursing schools (both public and private) have expanded enrollment, the scale of growth hasn’t matched the rising demand.
All these efforts have not been adequate in magnitude and scope. Despite expanded class sizes in nursing and medical schools, Georgia’s efforts haven’t been sufficient to meet healthcare workforce demands. Growing Undergraduate Medical Education (UME) alone isn’t enough—Graduate Medical Education (GME) must also be addressed. Currently, over 68% of Georgia medical graduates leave the state for residency, contributing to the physician shortage (according to the 2024 Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce 2024 Composite Match Report).
GHEHI aims to generate collaborative solutions to improve the number of RNs and MDs practicing in Georgia. By bringing together healthcare, academic institutions, and communities, we are striving to develop actionable steps to expand education and retention efforts. The time is now to expand the state’s healthcare workforce education and retention capabilities.
GHEHI's focus is on two specific areas of action:
(1) strengthening the entry pipelines into medical and nursing schools
(2) improving retention in the profession and in Georgia
Our goal is to achieve measurable progress toward improving Georgia’s ranking in active RNs and MDs per capita within the next 18 months to provide a foundation for further improvement.
Meet The Team
Laurie Ott
Executive Director
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Jacob Thielemier
Data Scientist
Andrew Chishom
MPH in Health Informatics
Mary Enloe
Principal Data Analyst
Maude Patton
Researcher, Graduate Medical Education