Joseph B. Martin, former dean of Harvard Medical School, bemoans the lack of new primary care doctors, and offers suggestions for how to increase that number in coming years.

Read his article in The Boston Globe.

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From Medical Economics magazine, more on physician shortage ...

Compared to compensation in the specialties and surgery, primary care is generally seen as the poorer step-child. But expect even less in the way of compensation if you’re a female PCP, especially one in family practice, says a new survey by Jackson & Coker, the Georgia-based physician staffing firm. Among other things, that income disparity has prompted some female PCPs to think seriously about leaving the profession down the not-too-distant road. To learn more about the trend and the survey generally, read Jackson & Coker’s press release.

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From Medical Economics magazine, more on primary care ...

Everyone has heard about the looming shortages in primary care, especially in family medicine. At the root of the problem are the lower reimbursements PCPs receive, as compared to their specialist and surgical colleagues. Now, in order to make primary care more attractive, Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Montana) has proposed boosting Medicare rates for PCPs. But some physicians see this as a robbing-Peter-to-pay-Paul approach. To read why, see this provocative entry from American Medical News.

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From Medical Economics magazine, more on physician shortage ...

Physicians seeking careers in primary care had as many job offers as specialists for the first time in years, according to the latest survey of physicians finishing training in New York and moving into the work force. Primary care doctors received an average of 3.7 job offers, compared to 2.7 in 2002, the Albany (NY) Times Union reports, based on a study conducted by the Center for Health Workforce Studies at the University at Albany. Job offers for specialists declined slightly to 3.6, compared to 4.3 in 2002.

Primary care doctors find better job market [Via Times Union (Albany, NY)]

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From Medical Economics magazine, more on primary care ...

Private physicians with dropping income have a few options. First, they can take fewer vacations and work longer hours. Second, they can supplement their income by joining the military reserves or the National Guard (this option is less popular lately). Third, they can restrict their practice to patients with higher-paying types of insurance. Fourth, they can market expensive, high-tech services and cosmetic services to this small population of well-insured and high-income individuals. These last two strategies will work in areas with sufficient numbers of higher income individuals, but fails in communities with high numbers of poorly insured individuals. Finally, as physician income shrinks, they look at what they can earn as salaried employees in a large physician group like Kaiser Permanente or Sutter Health Care, or a state institution like the Veterans Home or the state prison system.

Dysfunction within the medical system [Via Napa Valley Register]

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From Medical Economics magazine, more on primary care ...

The simple transition of a patient from one caretaker to another represents a gap that is “considered especially vulnerable to error.” As Quality and Safety in Health Care (QSHC), a publication of the British Medical Journal, noted in January, even the most common hand-off — your standard referral from primary care physician to specialist — is not risk-free. As Dr. Bob Wachter says in his blog, “in more than two-thirds of outpatient subspecialty referrals, the specialist received no information from the primary care physician to guide the consultation.”

21st Century Medicine Wrought with Miscommunication and Human Error [Via AlterNet]

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From Medical Economics magazine, more on clinical practice ...