NACHC Issues New Study on Primary Care Workforce
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Though access to primary care protects health and cuts costs, a study released today finds there aren’t enough primary care doctors and nurses at health centers to meet the need, with some areas having almost none – a situation that cannot be solved just by expanding health insurance coverage.
The study finds the availability of a primary care workforce depends on where you live, and primary care clinicians are not locating in areas that need them most, especially low-income communities. The study includes state-level projections of growing patient needs expected to stretch the health care system in years ahead. It was conducted by the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC), the Robert Graham Center and George Washington University.
ACCESS Transformed: Building a Primary Care Workforce for the 21st Century reaffirms that Community Health Centers are a bright spot in the public health debate. They provide high-quality care while controlling costs and pumping money and jobs into some of America’s neediest communities – yet their ability to provide care to the 56 million Americans lacking a medical or health care home will necessarily require key changes to current U.S. health workforce policies. The report was released as part of National Health Center Week 2008, which runs from August 10th through the 16th.
Among the study’s findings:
• Health centers face a greater demand for workforce than other sources of primary care. Today, they would need to hire over 1,800 additional primary care providers (doctors, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and certified nurse-midwives) and almost 1,400 additional nurses to reach provider/patient ratios comparable to the primary care field as a whole.
• To reach 30 million patients by 2015, health centers need up to 19,500 primary care providers and up to 14,400 nurses. Just over one third of the needed workforce is non-physician primary health care professionals.
• To provide a medical and health care home to all 56 million medically disenfranchised Americans nationwide and continue to serve current patients, health centers will need up to 60,000 more primary care professionals, and up to 44,500 additional nurses.
• Alaska, Wisconsin and Washington, D.C. have the most providers per patient, while Nevada, Alabama and Oklahoma have the fewest. Mandating universal health insurance is not enough.
One year after Massachusetts began its widely-touted health insurance mandate, the rate of uninsured adults dropped from 13% to 7%, yet the proportion of adults reporting that they could not find a primary care physician and therefore went without care rose 75%.
The National Association of Community Health Centers is the only national organization dedicated exclusively to expanding health care access for America’s medically underserved through the community-based health center model. Started over 40 years ago, today there are over 1,100 Community Health Centers, serving 18 million people at over 6,000 sites located throughout all 50 states and U.S. territories. Community Health Centers never turn anyone away for care – regardless of insurance status or ability to pay. They are local, non-profit, community-owned and federally-supported. For more: www.nachc.org.
The Robert Graham Center for Policy Studies in Family Medicine and Primary Care conducts research and analysis that brings a family medicine perspective to health policy deliberations in Washington. Founded in 1999, the Center is an independent research unit working under the personnel and financial policies of the American Academy of Family Physicians. The information and opinions contained in research from the Robert Graham Center do not necessarily reflect the views or policy of the AAFP. For more: www.graham-center.org.
The George Washington University Medical Center is an internationally recognized interdisciplinary academic health center that has consistently provided high-quality medical care in the Washington, DC metropolitan area for 176 years. The Medical Center comprises the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, the 11th oldest medical school in the country; the School of Public Health and Health Services, the only such school in the nation’s capital; GW Hospital, jointly owned and operated by a partnership between The George Washington University and a subsidiary of Universal Health Services, Inc.; and the GW Medical Faculty Associates, an independent faculty practice plan. For more information on GWUMC, visit www.gwumc.edu.
