Here are five key statistics:
1. There are 114 primary care physicians across the New York for every 100,000 residents, according to 2014 data from the Center for Health Workforce Studies at the University of Albany (N.Y.). Ratios for different parts of the state are:
- 123 primary care physicians downstate for every 100,000 residents.
- 98 upstate for every 100,000 residents
- 96 in Oneida County for every 100,000 residents
- 45 in Herkimer County for every 100,000 residents
2. David W. Lundquist, CEO and president of Rome (N.Y.) Memorial Hospital said the shortage of primary care physicians is especially acute in the central New York region because many practices are at capacity and unable to accept new patients.
3. Other hard-to-recruit specialty physicians include emergency medicine specialists, orthopedic surgeons, psychiatrists, surgical subspecialties, internal medicine subspecialists and hospitalists.
4. The Healthcare Association of New York State attributes the primary care physicians shortage to an aging workforce, lower salaries in primary care than in specialties, medical school debt and a lack of interest in practicing in under-served areas.
5. The association recommends increasing the pipeline for primary care physicians likely to work in undeserved areas, including funding for the loan-repayment programs Doctors Across New York and Primary Care Service Corps, greater use of telehealth, working with New York State Area Health Education Centers to recruit more culturally diverse healthcare providers and increasing Medicare support for graduate medical education.
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