With more people expected to have employee benefits in 2014, experts predict that doctors will likely see a substantial growth in the number of patients they treat . However, researchers point out that the current population of physicians may not be enough to adequately take on the expected rise.
According to Candice Chen, assistant research professor at George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, just 25 percent of doctors are going into the primary care division after graduating from medical school, United Press International reports. In addition, of those who do enter the practice, just 5 percent set up a practice in a rural location.
"If residency programs do not ramp up the training of these physicians, the shortage in primary care – especially in remote areas – will get worse," said Chen. The study's findings raise questions about whether federally funded graduate medical education institutions are meeting the nation's need for more primary care physicians."
Chen and her fellow researchers determined this after analyzing medical residency statistics between 2006 and 2008, following about 9,000 physicians who had graduated from a medical school around this time. Five years after getting out of college, only 25 percent of these doctors wound up becoming a primary care physician. Further, only one in every four of the medical schools doctors attended produced a doctor who went on to practice in the countryside.
What may add insult to injury is how many doctors are considering leaving the profession. Based on a recent poll conducted by Jackson Healthcare, more than 40 percent of practicing physicians say they are not happy with their job and are contemplating retiring or starting an alternative line of work.
