Briefing: Physician Shortage
For eight years, the Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS) has been reporting a shortage of primary care physicians in its annual Physician Workforce Study, which surveys Bay State doctors on such topics as supply of physicians, recruitment and retention, job satisfaction and knowledge of health care reform measures.
How does Central Mass. stack up?
Shortages are not limited to the primary care field. And though Central Massachusetts doesn't face the worst physician shortage compared to other regions of the state, it's more challenged than the Greater Boston region. According to the 2013 MMS survey, Worcester County faces the second-lowest physician shortage beyond primary care, with 57 percent of Central Massachusetts doctors reporting an inadequate pool of physicians. The region trails the Berkshire County and Springfield regions, where 78 and 75 percent of respondents, respectively, reported an inadequate pool. The New Bedford/Barnstable area lags behind Worcester, with 64 percent of doctors reporting shortages. Greater Boston fared better (nearly 48 percent).
Though Central Massachusetts is in a better position than most other regions, 30 percent of area physicians also reported significant difficulty in filling vacancies, and even more — 43 percent — said it was harder to retain staff.
What's behind the shortage?
MMS spokesman Richard Gulla said the further west of Boston you go, the problem tends to be worse, which explains why Springfield and Berkshire County doctors reported the greatest shortages. Gulla said that's because competitive salaries and the presence of medical schools wane in remote regions. He also noted that specialty areas that experienced new shortages within the last year, like neurology and gastroenterology, may be impacted by an aging workforce. Regarding primary care, Gulla said medical students today are finding it difficult to justify long hours with smaller salaries than specialists enjoy, and the problem isn't limited to Massachusetts.
What's being done to combat the primary care shortage?
“This is a nationwide phenomenon,” Gulla said, but he added that there are efforts within the medical community to attract more new medical school graduates to the primary care field. Those include the opening of new medical schools that focus on primary care, such as a new medical school that opened this year at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn. Medical associations and hospitals are also designing new debt-relief programs that offer low-interest loans to graduates going into primary care, Gulla said.
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