shortage

Times Telegram

Sen. Charles Schumer wants to take action to forestall a growing shortage of physicians.

He visited Oneida Healthcare on Friday to call for passage of the Physician Shortage Act of 2018, which would create 15,000 more Medicare-supported training slots for medical residents. The number of doctors trained in this country is limited by the number of available residencies…

…Jean Moore, director of the Center for Health Workforce Studies at the University at Albany, took a more nuanced view of the bill. To some extent, physician shortages are in the eye of the beholder, she said.

“That’s a trick question,” she said. “There’s a lot of different answers depending on your perspective on that. We need to find ways to use the people that we have more efficiently and to recognize that a lot of times when we talk shortage, it’s really maldistribution.”

Read Full Article

Pharmacy Choice

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer today launched a major effort to urge his colleagues in both the Senate and House of Representatives to immediately pass the Physician Shortage Act of 2017. Schumer explained that this critical legislation will add 15,000 more Medicare-supported residency training slots for doctors, helping to ensure teaching hospitals can train enough physicians to meet the growing demands for physicians as our nation is already in the midst of a doctor shortage. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, the U.S. is expected to face a shortage of up to 43,100 primary care physicians and 61,800 specialty physicians by 2030…

…Additionally, a recent major report for the Center for Health Workforce Studies (CHWSNY) found that providers are unevenly distributed across New York, with the Southern Tier often having far fewer physicians than it needs.

Read Full Article

PBS Newshour

Question: As a health care professional, I’m fed up with the “talent shortage.” If there’s a shortage, why do nurses like me also work as waitresses, and make more than we could make nursing, which I’m certified in? I also have a college degree, because I was told it was a necessity to compete today. One interview after another is a waste of time, with HR telling me I look good and to expect a callback that never comes. I got a couple of actual offers and one contract assignment, but I could walk dogs and make more. Hospitals just wait for somebody who will work for peanuts. And they are rude. My dream was to build a good career as a nurse and to get paid. Does anybody want to hire a registered nurse for a living wage?

Read Full Article

PewTrusts.org

HOUSTON — The skyscrapers at the Texas Medical Center are filled with hospital beds. The commuters waiting in the heat for the train wear scrubs. The young woman dodging traffic on a bicycle may be studying to be a doctor, a nurse or a dentist. Houston is known for its energy jobs, but registered nurses are the most in-demand workers in town. “Whatever jobs we have, we keep expanding. And our competitors are doing the same,” said Thomas Vernon, a human resources director for Houston Methodist, which has a large hospital at the medical complex here. Last year the health system hired about 1,200 nurses across its seven hospitals.

Read Full Article

DiagnosticImaging.com – Editor’s Corner

I recently sought to find a new primary-care physician ‘who’s located closer to where my wife and I live.

It ended up being a lot harder than I thought. Either doctors don’t take our insurance, aren’t taking new patients, or just don’t have 15 minutes to spare in the next few months.

The primary-care physician shortage is real, people. I am sure you didn’t need me to tell you that, but it’s interesting to experience firsthand an issue that we seem to talk about every day.

 Read Full Article

Watchdog.org

Discounting the governor and the state flag, there isn’t much that the secluded backwoods of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula have in common with the urban streets of Detroit. One thing they do have in common: not enough dentists. In all but seven of Michigan’s 83 counties, there is at least one area experiencing a shortage of dental professionals. It’s a truly statewide problem, one that affects a disproportionate number of children and low-income households.

Read Full Article