Primary Care Physician 'Did You Know' bullets

One problem with the primary care physician shortage is that these doctors are not fairly compensated when compared to their specialist counterparts. Often times, they do more work, see sicker patients, provide care in undeserved areas, and yet are still paid much less. Yet, it is believed that much of the work that PCPs provide is insignificant and often demeaning to their actual intended purpose.  Here are some some fact's that I found about concerns relating to the PCP shortage

Did you know:

• One projection estimates that by 2020 the shortage will balloon to 40,000 physicians.⁴ A more recent estimate suggests a gap of 52,000 primary care physicians by 2025.⁵ The problem particularly affects primary care for adults more so than for children.
• By 2016 the number of adult primary care physicians leaving practice will exceed the number entering,
•  A 50 percent increase inprimary care Medicare payments would be needed to greatly narrow theprimary care-specialty income gap
• There will be insufficient NPs and PAs to bridge the gap; the ratio of adult primary care clinicians
• One-fifth of primary care visits involve preventive care,¹⁵ most of which consists of cancer screening, counseling, and immunizations... An estimate that 60 percent of these preventive care services can be performed by nonclinicians suggests that 10 percent (60 percent times 17 percent) of clinicians’ time could be saved, which could translate into a 10 percent increase in primary care capacity
• Acute care consumes 46 percent of primary care physicians’ time. Registered nurses managing uncomplicated upper respiratory infections, using standing orders, provide care equal in quality to that offered by physicians;^27,28 also, patients are more satisfied with nurse-provided care.
• the patient-physician relationship is not alive and well. Seventy-eight percent of physicians believe that they provide compassionate care, but only 54 percent of patients agree.³⁸ Second, patient satisfaction with nurses or physical therapists for the care of minor acute illness and low back pain is greater than satisfaction with physicians for these conditions.^29,31,32 Third, patients who experience care from NPs and PAs are satisfied with their care

More information to come later. 

Reference

Bodenheimer, T., & Smith, M. (2013). Primary care: Proposed solutions to the physician shortage without training more physicians. HealthAffairs, 32(11), 1881-1886. doi: doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2013.0234