U.S. faces serious shortage of primary care physicians
August 14th, 2008 | by admin |
Healthcare News
Community health centers have a shortage of more than 3,200 primary care providers and nurses, with larger shortages in rural and low-income areas, according to a report released Monday by the National Association of Community Health Centers, CQ HealthBeat reports.
For the report, NACHC, George Washington University and the Robert Graham Center for Policy Studies in Family Medicine and Primary Care analyzed 2007 data from the Health Resources and Services Administration.
The report found that rural states — such as Nevada, Alabama and Oklahoma — have the largest shortages (Nylen, CQ HealthBeat, 8/11). In addition, the report found that 56 million U.S. residents do not have a regular source of health care because of shortages of physicians in their areas. Community health centers will require an additional 60,000 primary care professionals and 44,500 nurses to provide health care for those residents and current patients by 2015, according to the report. width=396 align=left vspace=5 border=0>This article is republished with kind permission from our friends at The Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery of in-depth coverage of health policy developments, debates and discussions. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for Kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Copyright 2008 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
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