jmccabegorman
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04:05:55 pm on August 11, 2008 | # |
Although home base is Holland (Rotterdam), I wind up traveling stateside frequently for healthcare events.
Between conferences, I normally touch down at the family seat – my mother’s home in rural St. Mary’s County, MD.
She’s been a nurse for 20+ years, and now works in behavioral health. A psych doc she knows has been trying to retire for several years. Each time, a massive, fully-monetized search for a replacement ensues. Each time, the search committee comes up empty.
What’s happening in St. Mary’s county is a microcosm of the physician shortage drama playing out across rural America. There aren’t enough docs. Docs don’t want to relocate to out-of-the-way locales where shopping at Wal-Mart on Saturday is a celebratory event.
What sort of incentives, other than salary, will white and blue collar communities have to provide to attract today’s best and brightest (or merely sufficient) physicians?
Docs – what would entice YOU to move to a rural, waterfront community with a heavily entrenched existing medical organization (Shah Associates, in the case of these three counties)?
Doctor Anonymous 5:12 pm on August 11, 2008 | # |
I live in rural America, and docs don’t want to come out here. They find comfort in the bigger cities where the groups are bigger and the call schedule is less intense – and I don’t blame them. Sometimes, salary is not even a big enough incentive to drag docs away from the city. I don’t have the answer. It’s a tough problem.
shari 2:03 am on September 11, 2008 | # |
I live in a smaller city, surrounded by countryside. We draw from four states, and about 100 miles radius.
I am already on call every third night, at which time I can expect to not get any sleep. I’m grateful. My last practice I was on every other night, and in one practice I was on 24/7. Since “call coverage” is mostly uninsured and Medicaid, I must work the day after call, or I will not be able to meet my practice overhead. (Docs are required to consult whether or not a patient can pay).
I can be bancrupted by a single suit from an uninsured patient who comes in in the middle of the night, if I make (or am accused of making) an error in judgement while operating without sleep.
If you wish docs to relocate, give then governmental immunity for working in hospitals. They don’t cover their costs, so they are, basically working for the state, for free.
If you wish docs to relocate to a rural area, they need to be able to pay back their student loans. Have loan forgiveness (year for year) for working 24/7 as they will need to in those rural areas.
Finally, folks who get Medicaid and Medicare should have a clause in their contracts requiring binding arbitration for malpractice. Folks would be a lot more willing to see patients with the above if this were present, and just about ALL rural residents have medicaid/medicare.