U.S. Physician Shortage Particularly Affects Rural Hospitals

Main Category: Primary Care / General Practice
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 27 Feb 2008 - 11:00 PDT

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The effects of a national shortage of general surgeons and family practice physicians are "echoing across the country," with the shortage of surgeons a "particular threat" to the health care of the 54 million U.S. residents who live in rural areas, USA Today reports.

The shortage began between the late 1970s and the mid-1990s, when several medical advisory groups, such as the Institute of Medicine and the Council on Graduate Medical Education, estimated a national surplus of physicians, according to USA Today. As a result, medical schools capped enrollment at about 16,000 students annually from 1980 to 2005, as the national population increased by more than 70 million, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. After medical schools determined that the estimated surplus was incorrect, they began to increase enrollment. Enrollment in medical schools last year increased to almost 17,800 students.

Josef Fischer, chief of the surgical unit at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Massachusetts, said that a "perfect storm" has formed for the shortage of physicians because of the three to seven years required to train them after finishing medical school and the aging population. According to USA Today, as the 79 million baby boomers begin to reach retirement age, "so are their doctors." From 1985 to 2006, the percentage of physicians ages 55 and older increased from 27% to 34%, and, according to a report released by AAMC in 2006, 250,000 active physicians in that age group will retire by 2020.

In addition, many new physicians, who often have debts of $150,000 to $250,000 for education costs, decide not to specialize in general surgery or family practice because they are "less lucrative than some specialties," USA Today reports. Thomas Russell, executive director of the American College of Surgeons, added that new physicians "want to know when they are on and when they are off." He added, "It's no longer a calling for younger people. They want balance in their life" (Davis, USA Today, 2/26).

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