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Doctor shortage plagues Wisconsin
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Also by Julia Holl:
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Wisconsin is experiencing an increasing shortage of doctors, especially throughout rural and inner city areas, according to a Monday report by the Wisconsin Hospital Association.
According to the report, created in cooperation with the Wisconsin Council on Medical Education and Workforce, there is a shortage of 374 primary care physicians in 31 counties, with a shortage of 20 primary care physicians in Milwaukee’s inner city alone.
Mary Kay Grasmick, vice president of communications at the Wisconsin Hospital Association, said the problem with the shortage of primary care physicians is that they are the first people in contact with patients and are therefore in high demand.
“The primary care physicians help the patients if it is something that they can help with such as a cold or a sore throat, and they also help navigate the patients to more intensive care if needed,” Grasmick said.
In response to the declining number of primary care physicians around the state, hospitalists have been forced to take up some of the workload usually reserved to primary care physicians.
“A lot of hospitals now have hospitalists who take care of people in the hospital so the primary care physicians can stay at their local office instead of going between hospital and office,” Grasmick said.
While some say hospitalists are a positive addition, others say it has contributed to the decline in primary care physicians.
Carl Getto, senior vice president of medical affairs for the University of Wisconsin Hospital, said the decrease in primary care physicians is purely the result of an absence of employees.
“The problem is not whether it is economically feasible to hire primary care physicians, but that the UW Hospital is not able to replace the primary care physicians that have left,” Getto said.
Grasmick said to decrease the shortage of primary care physicians, recommendations have been made to ensure more medical residents and students take up primary care as their specialty.
“A reimbursement system and incentives based on the level of education need to be put in place so people stay in primary care physician,” Grasmick said.
UW System spokesperson Dave Giroux said Wisconsin must work hard to sell itself.
“There is a great amount of research being done at UW, and the community needs to do a better job of selling the community because it is a challenge to recruit people,” Giroux said.
The Wisconsin Academy of Rural Medicine is one aspect of the UW School of Medicine and Public Health that is praised by the Wisconsin Hospital Association.
“Studies show that students from a small town often return to their small town,” Grasmick said. “The WARM school looks to recruit students who will take their medicine education back to their small towns, which will be beneficial to medical systems in Wisconsin’s rural areas.”
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Why would someone want to be a primary care physician? Primary care physicians have to go to school longer, and most often have much greater student loan debt. Match that with Obama’s proposed tax plan, and it makes more sense for these medical professionals to have less debt and make a little less money so that they aren’t taxed to death and in the end wind up being government employees, anyway.
That pesky market sure is a pain, isn’t it? When will America wake the heck up?????
blame this on doyle for lifting punitive damage caps, thus raising malpractice rates.
As a primary care provider (NP) from a family of family care providers, (MD,DO,PA)I can relate to the problems students have in chosing primary care. The student loan system leaves us with an enormous debt, often $140,000 or more. The cost of doing business, taxes, malpractice insurance, license fees, ect.. continue to increase. The payments we receive from insurance and other reimbursement are shrinking, and are less then specialists receive for the same proceedures. Our hours are long, 60-80 hours weekly, with heavy patient loads and increasing paperwork required by the government and insurance providers. Add new mandates from the congress for EMR’s and coding without any financial assistance for implementation and you see less and less intellegent people considering primary care. Too bad, it is the most rewarding and energizing area of health care, where everyday brings you joy in your profession.
The report was released by the Wisconsin Council on Medical Education and Workforce, not soley the WHA. The WHA is part of the WCMEW, however. http://www.wha.org/newsCenter/pdf/nr11-10-08physicianShortage.pdf