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| Greater Cincinnati's current and projected (2017) need for primary care physicians |
The study was commissioned by the Executive Stakeholders' Council and was published by the Health Collaborative. Jené Grandmont, Health Informatics Specialist at HealthLandscape, is the study's coauthor.
Goals
The study covered the following nine counties: Adams, Brown, Butler, Clermont, Hamilton, and Warren counties in Ohio, and Boone, Campbell, and Kenton counties in Kentucky. Its goals were threefold:
- To determine the number of primary care physicians practicing in the nine counties named above
- To evaluate the potential need for primary care physicians currently and in five years
- To make recommendations for the region to meet any needs that were identified
Findings
The study conservatively estimates that Greater Cincinnati needs 200 more primary care physicians to meet current demand and, unless the need is addressed, will require 250 by 2017. The study defined primary care physicians as "family medicine physicians, internal medicine physicians and general practice physicians (who have no specialty training beyond internship) serving the adult population."
- Physician deficits vary by county.
- The number of Medicaid recipients will increase by 25 percent throughout the study area if both Ohio and Kentucky expand Medicaid coverage.
- Demand for primary care among formerly uninsured adults will dramatically increase as the Affordable Care Act is implemented.
- Greater Cincinnati faces issues similar to other communities nationwide in terms of meeting demand for primary care physicians. Challenges include:
- Primary care physicians are not compensated as highly as specialty physicians.
- Fewer primary care physicians practice in rural and central city areas.
- There is a lack of racial and ethnic diversity among primary care physicians.
- Many current primary care physicians will retire in the next five to ten years.
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| Greater Cincinnati's primary care physician deficit based on Health and Human Services' desired ratio of 89 primary care physicians per 100,000 adults. |
Recommendations
The study makes detailed, practical recommendations to improve primary care delivery in Greater Cincinnati. Top-level recommendations are:
- Strengthen the current primary care base.
- Promote community-wide adoption of the patient-centered medical home concept. (A patient-centered medical home provides safe, accessible, comprehensive, accessible, coordinated patient-centered care.)
- Redouble Greater Cincinnati's efforts to recruit new primary care physicians and advanced-practice professionals (physician assistants and nurse practitioners) to the region.
- Continue to expand use of electronic health information.
- Encourage the establishment of collective impact metrics, so progress can be measured over time.
Slides published courtesy of the Health Collaborative.
These data are either not clear, or not appropriate, as the only analysis seems to be of primary care physicians, rather than primary care providers. Many types of primary care can be well done by other providers, including nurse practitioners and physicians assistants. The research community should be helping to publicize these changes in health care, not assuming that everything needs to be done by physicians.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments. You are correct that the study analyzed Greater Cincinnati's primary care physician capacity. We have corrected the blog title to clarify. Your point about primary care being done well by other providers is well taken. The detailed study recommendations (which we didn't have space for in the blog) include: "Recognize that models of care are changing, such as increases in PCMHs and use of advanced practice professionals. This will support further growth in primary care providers as part of the solution to the primary care shortage."
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