America's Primary Care Physician Shortage

First nursing shortages and now physician shortages?? Yes, that is correct.  There have been a series of events that have led up to this shortage including the possibility of universal health care that will cause the shortage to exponentially grow to 500,000 by the year 2020. 

The Examiner had a great article on this earlier this week (see link below for full article) highlighting some of the catalysts for the physician shortage.  In short, the reasons are as follows:

In the 1980s, US medical schools were graduating twice as many physicians as were retiring.  Physicians began to worry about their income and future job market.  In 1987, Congress capped residency programs at 23,000 per year, a level that is still in effect this day.  The influx of physicians into the market never happened.  Now realizing the upcoming dilema, schools are ramping up to fill the gap, however with the years of education, lack of facilities, educators, clinical opportunities the opportunity to play catch up is not viable for quite some time. 

What is the solution?  Enter the Nurse Practitioner and Physician Assistant.  More times than not when I make an appointment to see a doctor, I am asked if an NP or PA would be okay, and therefore I am able to get an appointment faster.  The quality and knowledge of service has always ranked high on the scale. 

We are seeing more hybrids on the roads for efficiency, now we will be seeing more NPs and PAs in the healthcare offices for efficiency, faster service without sacraficing quality and knowledge.  A positive, reliable and cost productive solution for America's Primary Physician Shortage. 

http://www.examiner.com/x-5968-DC-Public-Policy-Examiner~y2009m8d24-Physician-shortage-spurs-search-for-alternatives