When his colleague departed in December, family doctor Charles Bennett thought he would soon find a new partner for his private practice in Lusby. But he has had no luck for the past eight months.
"I'm still trying to find someone, but I don't think it will get any better in the foreseeable future," said Bennett, whose Calvert County practice employs four staff members. "The process is very time-consuming, and I am already very busy as it is."
Bennett's troubles stem from the fact that the United States faces a serious shortage of family physicians, especially in rural and poorer communities. There are too few primary care doctors and nurses to meet growing health care needs, according to a report released yesterday by the National Association of Community Health Centers. The study found availability depends on location.
More often than not, fewer clinicians practice in areas that need them most.
"This is the unfortunate reality of our health care system. It's an example of how the market triumphs over public policy," said Dan Hawkins, the association's senior vice president of programs and policy and one of the authors of the report. "Even if universal health care comes into play tomorrow, not everyone would have access to a health care provider."
Although many of these people are insured, 56 million Americans do not have a regular source of health care due to shortages of physicians in their communities, according to the online report. Hawkins said that this translates to poorer health outcomes and less coordinated care for this group.
The study estimates that, in order to provide services to these medically disenfranchised Americans as well as current patients, health centers will need up to 60,000 more primary care professionals, and up to 44,500 additional nurses.
For Maryland, this would translate into hiring an additional 133 primary care providers - including doctors, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and certified nurse-midwives - by 2015.
Another report released earlier this year, the Maryland Physician Workforce Study, emphasized that southern and western counties and the Eastern Shore are seeing "critical" physician shortages, which included not only primary care, but also in most specialties, such as dermatology and thoracic surgery.
Overall, Maryland is 16 percent below the national average for the number of physicians in clinical practice, according to the Maryland Hospital Association.
