article on physician shortages.

[houseelf]

I've been reading about predicted shortages of surgeons for years in DH's throw away magazines. (Yeah, I need to get a life and read other stuff). In DH's surgical subspecialty, a number of children's hospitals may just have to divert surgical patients to big cities or even close up shop because there simply aren't enough credentialed peds surgeons available for all the posts. (I mean, really, who is insane enough to willingly choose this amount of training? But I digress...)

I didn't realize that the shortage extended to all areas of medicine.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/200 ... tage_N.htm

Kelly

[Deebs]

Re: article on physician shortages.

The scariest part of this article is the comments posted afterward. There are so many people in this country trying to find a solution for the healthcare crisis without understanding how healthcare works and is funded (Medicare a "cash cow"???), and such a misunderstanding about malpractice. There were states (such as IL, where we're both from and where all of our family still is) where DH didn't even look for a job. We knew that with the additional med mal insurance he'd have to carry, along with his student loan debt, we'd be living paycheck to paycheck (believe me, we're not banking anything yet, but we hope to eventually). We definitely need to find incentives for MDs to go into specialties that are hurting the most in terms of shortages (maybe student loan repayment????). DH has it pretty good in terms of having specialty coverage, because he is at an academic center. However, many of his residency classmates have stories about the lack of follow up their patients are receiving because there is simply no option for specialty care. Just one more way medicine has become so screwed up...

[DCJenn]

Re: article on physician shortages.

Child Neurology is facing a huge shortage in the coming years and it's seriously underpaid- in fact, the average CN can expect to make about 20k more than the average pediatrician, with at least 3 more years of training.

yay.

But, of course, he didn't pick CN for it's money making potential and in the big scheme of things he makes 4 times the amount of money that I do, and that's in the military.

Whether he stays in the military is largely dependent upon the salaries in the civilian world (currently not that much different) and malpractice insurance (don't have to have any right now) and reimbursements (again, currently not an issue.)

Jenn

[Vishenka69]

Re: article on physician shortages.

There was recently (a few months ago) a similar article in the Atlantic Monthly. It talked about the danger of increased medical school enrollment and over saturation of doctors, as if that's the only reason for inflated medical costs. One of the readers who wrote a response letter (a Doc), correctly pointed out that unless the number of residency spots change, increase in number of medical school graduates won't lead to more doctors overall, just more American doctors vs foreign docs who currently fill in the empty residency spots.

I was also surprised that nobody (not the article or anyone writing letter in response) mentioned that the reason some areas are oversaturated is because they pay better or it's often easier for a spouse to find a job there or a gazillion other reasons why doctors would prefer one location over another. The studies quoted in the article (only focusing on the patient population and number of doctors) had so many holes in them, that I just gave up reading after half a page.

[peggyfromwastate]

Re: article on physician shortages.

New DO schools are opening up to help with this problem-- I think maybe they need more medical schools built out west.