Health News
- Panel Of Physicians At National Conference Discuss Future Of Rural Primary Care, How To Solve Doctor Shortages
More needs to be done to address the shortage of primary-care physicians, a big problem in rural areas and much of Kentucky, according to a panel of physicians at "Rural Health Journalism 2014," Kris Hickman writes for the Association of Health Care...
- U Of L's Trover Medical Campus Ranked Among Best For Rural Medicine Education And Addresing Rural Physician Shortage
The University of Louisville School of Medicine Trover Rural Campus in Madisonville was rated third best in the nation for preparing medical students to practice in rural areas, which is critical to the state since most of Kentucky's rural counties...
- Medicaid Expansion Brings Primary Care Access To The Forefront
The federal health reform law will usher at least seven million more Americans into Medicaid, and as states like Kentucky debate Medicaid expansion, policymakers are struggling with the question of whether there will even be enough primary...
- Online Training Could Help Rural Doctors Offer Better Mental Health Care
More than half of all U.S. mental health care takes place at the primary-care level, and that percentage is even higher in rural areas, where mental-health doctors are often hundreds of miles away, reports Newswise, a research-reporting service....
- Will Illinois Have Enough Family Physicians Beyond 2014?
Do we have enough physicians to care for newly insured patients seeking care starting Jan. 1? Some will be covered by Medicaid; some gain coverage through the insurance marketplace; and others turning 65 join the ranks of Medicare. The Illinois Academy...
Health News
Doctor shortage news: Residencies are filling the pond with primary care doctors, but U.S. and Ky. need an ocean of them
Despite a critical shortage of primary care in the country, only 25 percent of newly educated doctors go into this field, and even worse for the mostly-rural Kentucky, less than 5 percent go on to practice in rural areas, says a study by researchers at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services (SPHHS).
The report, which was just released in the ?Published Ahead-of-Print? section in Academic Medicine, suggests that not only are we facing a primary care shortage, but also that the problem is not likely to be solved soon. There's been a lot of talk about the need to get primary care doctors to practice in Kentucky, specifically in the state's rural areas, without mention of the underlying issue that the study makes clear: there are not even close to enough doctors being trained as primary care physicians in the first place.
In addition to finding that just 4.8 percent of the graduate medical education system practiced in rural areas, 198 institutions (26 percent) produced no rural physicians and 283 institutions (37 percent) produced no Federally Qualified Health Center or Rural Health Clinic physicians, which were created to enhance the provision of primary care services in underserved communities.
?If residency programs do not ramp up the training of these physicians the shortage in primary care, especially in remote areas, will get worse,? said lead study author Dr. Candice Chen, a professor at SPHHS. ?The study?s findings raise questions about whether federally funded graduate medical education institutions are meeting the nation?s need for more primary care physicians.?
Currently, the U.S. is producing primary care physicians at rates that are ?abysmally low? and unless changes are made to the system, the nation will have an even greater shortfall of primary care doctors just as the Affordable Care Act ramps up demand for these services, said Chen in a Newswise release. And in Kentucky, the additional need for primary care doctors as a result Medicaid expansion is piled onto the heap of issues.
The study's authors said policymakers should take a hard look at the skewed incentives and other factors that have led to the current primary care crisis and develop a more accountable graduate medical education system. It is critical to find a better balance in medical specialties and more primary care physicians to build an effective, affordable health system.
The report, which was just released in the ?Published Ahead-of-Print? section in Academic Medicine, suggests that not only are we facing a primary care shortage, but also that the problem is not likely to be solved soon. There's been a lot of talk about the need to get primary care doctors to practice in Kentucky, specifically in the state's rural areas, without mention of the underlying issue that the study makes clear: there are not even close to enough doctors being trained as primary care physicians in the first place.
In addition to finding that just 4.8 percent of the graduate medical education system practiced in rural areas, 198 institutions (26 percent) produced no rural physicians and 283 institutions (37 percent) produced no Federally Qualified Health Center or Rural Health Clinic physicians, which were created to enhance the provision of primary care services in underserved communities.
?If residency programs do not ramp up the training of these physicians the shortage in primary care, especially in remote areas, will get worse,? said lead study author Dr. Candice Chen, a professor at SPHHS. ?The study?s findings raise questions about whether federally funded graduate medical education institutions are meeting the nation?s need for more primary care physicians.?
Currently, the U.S. is producing primary care physicians at rates that are ?abysmally low? and unless changes are made to the system, the nation will have an even greater shortfall of primary care doctors just as the Affordable Care Act ramps up demand for these services, said Chen in a Newswise release. And in Kentucky, the additional need for primary care doctors as a result Medicaid expansion is piled onto the heap of issues.
The study's authors said policymakers should take a hard look at the skewed incentives and other factors that have led to the current primary care crisis and develop a more accountable graduate medical education system. It is critical to find a better balance in medical specialties and more primary care physicians to build an effective, affordable health system.
- Panel Of Physicians At National Conference Discuss Future Of Rural Primary Care, How To Solve Doctor Shortages
More needs to be done to address the shortage of primary-care physicians, a big problem in rural areas and much of Kentucky, according to a panel of physicians at "Rural Health Journalism 2014," Kris Hickman writes for the Association of Health Care...
- U Of L's Trover Medical Campus Ranked Among Best For Rural Medicine Education And Addresing Rural Physician Shortage
The University of Louisville School of Medicine Trover Rural Campus in Madisonville was rated third best in the nation for preparing medical students to practice in rural areas, which is critical to the state since most of Kentucky's rural counties...
- Medicaid Expansion Brings Primary Care Access To The Forefront
The federal health reform law will usher at least seven million more Americans into Medicaid, and as states like Kentucky debate Medicaid expansion, policymakers are struggling with the question of whether there will even be enough primary...
- Online Training Could Help Rural Doctors Offer Better Mental Health Care
More than half of all U.S. mental health care takes place at the primary-care level, and that percentage is even higher in rural areas, where mental-health doctors are often hundreds of miles away, reports Newswise, a research-reporting service....
- Will Illinois Have Enough Family Physicians Beyond 2014?
Do we have enough physicians to care for newly insured patients seeking care starting Jan. 1? Some will be covered by Medicaid; some gain coverage through the insurance marketplace; and others turning 65 join the ranks of Medicare. The Illinois Academy...