SARASOTA, FL -- There is a shortage of primary care doctors in parts of every state, and that means higher death rates and higher costs for health care. Here’s how the shortage is affecting one county already, and how it may also be affecting you.
Betty White is at First Physician Group near Sarasota Memorial Hospital for her yearly exam. Before she leaves, she makes next years appointment because appointments fill up fast. One of the reasons Dr. Hamel is one of just two women in this particular office and she's one of the shrinking numbers of primary care physicians in Sarasota County.
Della Shaw is the Chief Operating Officer of First Physician’s Group in Sarasota County. “There’s a primary care shortage nationwide. We hear stories of this and it's conflicting. We do hear there are plenty of doctors out there but there really is a misdistribution."
An investigation by Scripps Howard News Service and ABC Action News uncovered a void in primary care physicians across Tampa Bay. While in Hillsborough and Pinellas County there are over a thousand general practitioners. In Polk and Sarasota counties there are less than 400.
Regardless of whether they have insurance or not, one in five Americans does not have a relationship with a family doctor. And that shortage will broaden as less than 10 percent of medical students graduating from college will go into primary care opting instead for higher paying specialties.
Shaw says, “As a matter of fact there’s an estimate that by 2020 there may be a shortage of as high as 200-thousand doctors across the United States.”
And according to the American College of Physicians, it will impact everyone.
President Jeffrey Harris says, "It means at least the potential for higher health care costs and poorer outcomes. Life expectancy would be less, infant mortality would be higher, patients not getting the care they need."
Shaw says, "So there's a bit of a perfect storm brewing. Now add to that some of the malpractice rates in Florida are some of the most egregious in the country, there’s already that sense Florida is not a friendly place for physicians."
In an effort to help counter the growing problem at the First Physicians Group in Sarasota, Shaw recently recruited Dr. Hamel and another female primary care doctor. Dr. Hamel says even though she's an OB/GYN, patients like Betty White are using her as their only doctor.
Dr. Hamel says, "I have a lot of patients that use us as primary care we do their lab work."
And Betty says she’s concerned about the lack of primary care doctors, knowing it’s already affecting her. “Right now, for me to get my appointment for next year I have to book it today for a year from now."
The American College of Physicians says they are trying to do something about the shortage. Change teaching curriculum changes in school curriculum will focus more on the importance of primary care.
Reduce paperwork improvements in technology could make all the dreaded paperwork a thing of the past. But the third and biggest obstacle is narrowing the salary gap. Primary care physicians just don't make what a cardiologist does.
For information on primary cared doctors in your county see the information below.
