According to The American Medical Association (AMA) Master File and The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) the supply of physicians who are actively participating in patient care is 9.3% higher in 2020 than it was in 2009. This trend has continued through 2024—the numbers for that year are not yet available. There are currently 1.1million practicing physicians in the USA today. That number does not include Physician’s Assistance (PA’s) and Family Nurse Practitioners (FNP)s. There are currently 100,00( PAs) practicing in the USA and 325,000 (FNPs).
By state, the supply of professionally active physicians in patient care per 10,000 resident population in 2019 was lowest in Idaho (19.0), Mississippi (19.8), and Wyoming (20.2), and highest in D.C. (65.8), Massachusetts (44.2), and Rhode Island (40.7).
Remember those numbers don’t reflect the number of (PAs) and FNPs) practicing in a state.
The infant mortality which along with life expectancy and death rates is used as a measure of quality of care, in Washington DC is 5.45/ 1000 compared to Idaho where it is 5.25/1000. In Washington DC they have three times the number of doctors per capita than in Idaho. It is not just the number of doctors or providers that is important, I believe the lifestyles of patients is the critical factor regarding morbidity and mortality. Smoking and obesity along with a family history of heart disease and cancer have long been identified by health insurance actuaries as the primary determinant for medical outcomes.
We spend way too much time and effort trying to make the numbers match. The bottom line is that your health is more determined by the way you choose to live your life, than by any ratio of doctors to patients or life expectancy predictions. It has nothing to do with the number of tests that are run on you as a patient, You, except in rare cases like congenital diseases, some cancer, and diseases caused by traumatic events—though if you chose to drive a motorcycle your life expectancy certainly goes down, determine your own health outcomes.
Health care providers are dropping out of the workforce at an unprecedented rate. We hear about Ob/Gyn doctors and pediatricians in Idaho migrating and retiring.. But with birth rates at an all-time low of 1.6/couple, the need for more obstetricians and pediatricians is much less acute than it was 30 years ago. By the way they are losing birthing centers and baby doctors almost as fast in Oregon (blue state pro-abortion) as red states like Idaho Every year we lose 86,000 MDs and Osteopaths and over 30,000 (PAs) and (FNPs). If our legislators and government bureaucrats want to change the trajectory of those numbers they need to decrease the regulatory environment of the individual health care provider, the large institutions and increase financial incentives to keep people working and to build up the work force by encouraging more medical schools.
On April 16th in the FIAMC—the magazine of the World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations, Teressa Donavan wrote an article that addressed the issues of provider shortage across all specialties and provider groups. Benedictine College in Atchison Kansas, Xavier University in Ohio, and Duquesne University in Iowa are all starting new Osteopathic Medical schools this year. Most importantly to me and to many Catholic and non-Catholic physicians, doctors and nurses, is the fact that included in the curriculum of all these new colleges will be according to the new President of Benedictine College Stephen D. Minus “ “A Catholic medical school faithful to the teachings of the Church and committed to emphasizing Christ-centered medical care can help transform American health care,”
Medical education and providing health care to the poor was the mission of many religious orders and traditions. The Jewish hospital system and Catholic hospital systems led the way in making The United States the world leader in health care. Think of the Jewish Health care organizations like Barnes teaching hospital and Jewish hospitals in Los Angeles, and New York City. Think of The john Hopkins and Mayo Clinic Founded by Catholic orders and nuns. Think of the Holy Cross Sisters that came across the Idaho Desert from Salt Lake City in 1896 and Founded St. Al’s or several years later the Episcopalian clergy and laity that founded St. Luke’s. No $15million CEOs in those groups. Service was to the patient and was part of a covenant relationship between patient—provider and God.. Today we have mechanized, atomized, and merchandized health care. The what and the how we do well, but the why—to serve others and glorify God, is missing.
In a 1949 letter to The New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. John Jerrold Applegarth, a graduate of Harvard Medical School, U.S. Army physician, and Fellow of the American College of Physicians, wrote:
The science of medicine is one thing. The profession of medicine is another. The business of a practicing physician is undeniably linked to the Christian virtue of Charity. This implies the truth of man created by God. Herein lies the inherent dignity of man. From where else comes the logic of the argument against the practice of euthanasia? The hydrocephalic or the [child with Down syndrome] may not be apparently “useful to society,” but he is “useful” to God by virtue of being His creature. Unless doctors abandon their subtle omnipotence and realize that the values that define their profession are Christian values, their art will be reduced to a mere technic. . . . As a recent graduate, I can vouch for the difficulty of a medical student’s viewing man as anything more than viscera, muscle groups, and “integrated reflexes.” The honest respect that he has for his instructor’s learned outline of anatomy and physiology is easily shifted to an identification with his materialistic innuendos and—the “organism.” In all the wealth of his clinical teaching, where is he told of the practice of medicine and the values underlying it? Exhortations to “treat the patient as a whole” are not enough. He must gain an idea why the patient is worth treating at all.
The medical profession could use more physicians animated by respect for the sacred humanity and value of their patients. Hence, the launch of new medical schools at Benedictine College, Duquesne University, and Xavier University is uplifting news indeed. This respect for sacred humanity is an Idaho value. It is not just a Catholic or Mormon, or Jewish value. We need Idaho medical students to be taught by Idaho Doctors so that Idaho patients can be treated with the same compassion and thoughtfulness that the Holy Cross Sisters gave to their patients in 1896.
