Knutson 1

Jens Knutson
Mrs. Warneke
Block 4
10/22/15
Physician Shortage

Mara Gordon, a medical student from New Jersey medical school, voiced a common
opinion around all medical schools that, general medicine is often considered unchallenging and
quaint, even though primary-care doctors are what our nation needs most considering the large
shortage in Primary Care Physicians throughout the most recent years and most likely for the
next decade. For those who dont know, Primary Care Physicians take up 38% of all primary
care workers and, the primary care workforce needs to grow from 209,000 to 261,000 within
the next couple decades (Champlin). Of course, increasing the numbers isnt as easy as it seems
when the number of physicians in the field are consistantly fluxuating up and down due to
doctors changing jobs, new physicians joining, and students finishing up medical school. Many
students arent going into the field for several reasons. First of all, it doesnt pay as much as
specialists do, and Secondly, it costs more to train a primary care physician than most specialists.
In order to fix the Physician shortage problem, not only must we increase initiatives for people to
want to become a general physician, but also to steadily increase communication within the
branches of medical areas as well as increase efficiency between them in order to improve the
medical field as a whole (Gordon)(Champlin)(Schimpff).
Primary care physicians compared to primary care workers in the United States are 40%
less than the average primary care physicians in other large countries (Schimpff). This is largely
due to several variables in the U.S. that may be different in other countries. For one, the amount

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of money most primary care physicians make in a year is significantly less than every specialized
area. On paper that makes sense, but when is it fair that someone who knows a lot about one
subject gets paid more than someone who knows a lot about multiple subjects? Thats were our
government has went wrong, and were suffering for it. Another example is schooling. The
schooling for going into the primary care field doesnt offer many scholarships, loans, and grants
that others do. When these two reasons combine, it makes sense why, only 30% of all
physicians practice primary care compared to about 70% in most other developed countries and
about 70% in the United States fifty years ago but yet we still continue to ignore the
problem(Schimpff). Lets not forget about the generation of baby boomers that are starting to
grow old. This will greatly affect the number of physicians and it will also affect the amount of
physicians needed in the future. Although the lack of physicians is the main problem, the public
cannot look past the many problems within a field.There seems to be a major lack of
communication and teamwork throughout hospitals and their employees. Then again, lack of
communication and teamwork would be fixed with an increase in physicians. This is because
more primary physicians means less specialists and less information to be passed between fields
of expertise (Schimpff)(Barret).
The physician shortage wont go away unless universities become informed about this
problem and offer to help fix it. Universities could help by increasing the initiative for students to
want to go into this field. One initiative that would greatly help would be to increase scholarships
for primary care. All universities should offer bigger scholarships, as well as more scholarships
to students willing to go into programs such as physicians assistant. This would improve the
amount of students that go into the program, therefor increase the amount of primary care
physicians within the next couple of years. Another large initiative not just for students, but for

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all doctors interested is to increase the pay of primary care physicians. The national average pay
for primary care physicians right now is $165,161, but some specialists make up to twice that
amount (Petterson). The amount of pay is completely opposite from what it should be
considering primary care physicians know a lot about the body, while specialists know a lot
about one part of the body. Lastly, if the shortage isnt being fixed within the next couple of
years, there would have to be a drastic change in one of the initiatives. When combined, every
initiative should work to stop the shortage of physicians. While there are a lot of benefits to
increasing primary care physicians such as: more primary doctors for regular check-ups, and less
confusion in the workplace, there are also some drawbacks for increasing physicians. One
example would be that there is a high possiblity that there could be too many primary care
physicians and that would lead to many educated doctors without jobs. Finally, another drawback
is that the specialists would lose their jobs if there was an excess of primary care physicians
because they are qualified in more areas than specialists are. While the main problem within the
physician shortage is the actual shortage of physicians, there is also an increasing problem of
lack of communication and teamwork in medical locations (Petterson)(Parker)(Estrada).
Another problem with the physician shortage is the lack of communication and teamwork
going on in all medical fields. There are too many specialists that stick to their job (and field of
expertise) and dont mind what others are doing with that same patient. The best way to fulfill
this request is to talk and communicate better throughout every branch. This can be achieved by
having regular meetings and group discussions with every branch. If there is better cooperation,
the problems for almost every patient can be solve much quicker and more effieciently solved.
The only drawback to increasing good communication is the amount of time spent to fix this
problem. The time that needs to be put into creating a better work place for all medical workers

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is not just a couple of hours, but a couple of weeks to fully comprehend the problem and fix it.
Although increasing the communication and building teamwork in a working atmosphere will
increase the efficiency of all medical teams, the shortage of physicians needs to be fixed with a
combination of the two (Champlin)(Powers).
The most efficient solution for fixing the physician shortage is to increase initiatives for
students and doctors to want to join primary care, and to build the communication and teamwork
between labratories and hospitals. When increasing the initiatives, it will gradually improve the
number of people going into the field as well as increase the number of students going into the
field but it doesnt help to solve the problem within the field. That is why increasing
communication and teamwork would be monumental to fixing the shortage problem. The
combination of communication, teamwork and initiatives would be the best solution this growing
problem within our health care system (Porter).
Physician shortage is a growing problem within our health care system that can be solved
if the people are factually informed about it and act on it. In order to fix the physician shortage
problem, there has to be an increased initiatives for people to want to become physicians, or
work to increase communication within different branches to be more efficient. The best way to
fix this problem would be to put both solutions into effect in the next couple decades.

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Works Cited
Champlin, Leslie. "Family Physician Shortage Could End With Targeted Policies That Value
Primary Care." aafp.org. 13 Mar. 2014. Web. 25 Sept. 2015.
Barret, Casey. "What Do I Need to Know about Primary Care Physicians and Specialists?"
bcbsm.com. 7 May 2012. Web. 25 Sept. 2015.
Estrada, Brittany. "Projecting the Supply and Demand for Primary Care Practitioners Through
2020" bhpr.hrsa.gov. Nov. 13, 2012. Web. 30 Sept. 2015
Gordon, Mara. Why Im Becoming a Primary-Care Doctor theatlantic.com. 18 Sept. 2014.
Web. 15 Oct. 2015.
Parker, Julie. Improving Clinical Communication ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. 6 Sept. 2000. Web. 30
Sept. 2015
Petterson, Stephen. "Projecting Primary Care Physician Workforce Needs: 2010-2025"
annfammed.org. Feb. 10, 2012. Web. 30 Sept. 2015.
Porter, Sheri. "Significant Primary Care, Overall Physician Shortage Predicted by 2025."
aafp.org. 19 Nov. 2013. Web. 25 Sept. 2015.
Powers, Louis. "GME Funding: How to Fix the Doctor Shortage." aamc.org. Aug. 31, 2012.
Web. 30 Sept. 2015.
Schimpff, C. Stephen. Why is there a shortage of primary care physicians? kevinmd.com. 17
Feb. 2014. Web. 15 Oct. 2015.