Today, the United States is facing a shortage of about 16,000 primary care physicians and this number will continue to grow by 2025 (Amirault, 2014).
Primary care physicians (PCPs) are the doctors who focus on overall health and offer the treatments and preventive screenings that save lives. A physician shortage is a situation in which there are not enough providers to treat all patients in need of medical care. The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) has long pointed out that the shortage of primary care physicians will be a major setback for the American healthcare system advancing (Amirault, 2014).The shortage of primary care providers presents a serious problem for many healthcare organizations, and one that cannot be easily fixed. Throughout this paper, the contemporary health care issue of the shortage of primary care physicians will be further discussed, as well as its challenges and its impact on health care organizations from a business perspective.
There are a number of factors contributing to the shortage of primary care physicians. The simple rule of supply and demand is driving the physician shortage.The existing primary care physician workforce is shrinking as the demand for primary care services is increasing because of the aging population and the expected number of insured Americans who will enter the system through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Christian, 2011). The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is the federal statute that attempts to reform the American healthcare system by providing more Americans with affordable health insurance (Currie, 2013).Some other reasons why there is a shortage of primary care physicians is that a significant portion of the physician workforce (33%) is over the age of 55 and is planning to retire in the next ten to fifteen years (Amirault, 2014). The number of U.
S. medical students going into the primary care field is declining as well. Currently, only two percent of medical students graduating plan careers in primary care (Christian, 2011). Many medical students are not choosing primary care as a career choice because of debt.Debt is a factor of the shortage of primary care physicians because it affects the career choices of medical students. Each medical degree requires approximately the same amount of sacrifice and work but later career pathways are widely unequal in reward.
The reality is that primary care providers are among the lowest-paid on the physician scale and it requires more sacrifice because these physicians work longer hours and take phone calls at night (Christian, 2011).Subsequently, it is no surprise that many medical students choose higher-paying paths that guarantee more money. Lastly, the amount of federal sponsored residency slots is also a factor of the shortage of primary care physicians because medical students looking into a field where more physicians are desperately needed may be deterred by the lack of residencies in those fields. The federal funding for these residency slots has been frozen since 1997 (Amirault, 2014).Furthermore, the shortage of primary care physicians presents many challenges to the average American and health care organizations. The average American will face a number of negative effects of the shortage because patients might have to wait longer to see a primary care physician and travel farther for appointments (Latham, 2010).
Some patients will not even want to face the problems caused by the physician shortage so they limit or delay their appointments, which could hurt their overall health (Latham, 2010).Another challenge that the shortage of physicians presents is that more than seven million Americans could face a primary care physician shortage as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act improves coverage but increases demand (Currie, 2013). Millions of Americans are expected to obtain insurance in 2014 through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Currie, 2013). The challenging part is that more than 10,000 Americans are turning 65 every day for the two decades, and the demand for these physicians to take care of the aging population is outstripping supply (Currie, 2013).Even though the demand for primary care physicians is increasing, only about twenty percent of medical residents go into primary care (Amirault, 2014). In addition to the challenges of the primary care physician shortage, the shortage will also have a great impact on health care organizations from a business perspective.
The shortage will have a great effect because physicians are revenue makers for healthcare organizations. The care primary care physicians provide translates into billable services that make up the organization’s income.It is reported that the average physician generates approximately $1. 4 million in income for a healthcare organization (Amirault, 2014). Therefore, organizations operating with less primary care physicians could experience significant revenue loss.
For example, if a health care organization is short a single primary care physician it could mean longer appointment waiting times for patients. This could result in patients choosing a different organization for their medical care and the health care organization will lose money.The organization will be affected in other ways as well because fewer primary care physicians mean lower patient satisfaction and quality of care. From a business perspective, the shortage of primary care physicians will also affect the health care organization because organizations will be forced to pay existing providers to pick up additional shifts (Amirault, 2014). Primary care physicians could experience physician burnout overtime if they work more hours than usual and this could affect the overall quality of care (Amirault, 2014).Many health organizations will also have a difficult time to find new permanent primary care physicians.
There is such a limited pool to choose from so health organizations will most likely have to wait longer to recruit and retain quality physicians (Amirault, 2014). Since recruiting and retaining physicians will take longer, healthcare organizations are losing thousands of dollars in billable services each day. In conclusion, the shortage of primary care physicians is affecting the average American and health care organizations significantly.Factors leading to a primary care physician shortage include an aging population, aging physician workforce and increased number of patients with health insurance due to the Affordable Care Act.
The health care system could face a future crisis because primary care physicians play an important role in the general health of the communities in which they serve. The United States right now is moving toward a healthcare system that is putting a much higher priority on keeping people healthy and out of the hospital and primary care providers will play the leading role in this transformation.
