Doctor shortages are projected to be at nearly 30,000 in the next few years, but according to a recent article published in The Atlantic, one area is seeing an influx of new docs -- hospitals.
According to the article, medical schools are brimming with prospective students, and residency slots are filling at higher rates than ever. And once those students finish their studies, they're turning toward hospitals for work, leaving the shortage in primary care physicians to grow.
With more than 30,000 doctors nationwide classified as hospitalists -- physicians who no longer have office-based practices or perform primary care -- the rate at which primary care doctors are diminishing is substantial. To illustrate how hard it will be to find a primary care doctor in the years to come, the article looked no further than Massachusetts.
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"In 2006, the state passed a healthcare law mandating that everyone obtain insurance…" it read. "For those unable to afford cost, subsidies were made available. Within weeks, the 'uninsurance' rate in Massachusetts dropped precipitously. Commensurate with that was a rise in both the number of 'closed' office practices and the length of time it took to get a new patient appointment. Nearly six years after the law passed, more than half of the family practice and internal medicine offices in the state are closed to new patients."
Practicing as a hospitalist has many perks for a young doc, including, "financial and lifestyle considerations. A starting hospitalist (depending on what region of the country they practice in) can earn around $200,000 per year." The most enticing perk, though, the article claims, is the "seven-on/seven-off" schedule employed by most systems: when a hospitalists earns their salary working seven days, followed by another seven off.
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"Couple the lifestyle and the training experience with the huge debt burden that U.S. medical students accrue, and deciding on a hospitalist career becomes a rational choice," the article read.
Now compare the perks to "the realities of office practice," and a hospitalist position becomes that much more attractive. "Fifteen-minute visits with patients on multiple medications, oodles of paperwork that cause office docs to run a gauntlet just to get through their day, and more documentation and regulatory burdens than ever before. Students see the high pressure that primary care docs are under and are increasingly making the logical choice."
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