germination in the primary care phy...

germination in the primary care physician workforce (physicians by means of capita) in the United States has trailed the pullulation of the specialist physician population in novel years. This has occurred despite calls during the same period for increased production of primary care physicians and educational reforms focusing forward primary care.

Physicians' offices remain the chiefly likely place Americans receive formal health care in the United States. The number of physicians by capita who classified themselves as "office-based" increased by the agency of 53 percent between 1980 and 1999 resulting in 428923 office-based physicians or 157 by 1,000 people.

As shown below, single modest success was achieved between 1980 and 1999 in increasing the number of primary care physicians through capita (family physicians +0.3 percent general internists +80 percent and general pediatricians +75 percent) while the production of other physician specialists was to a great degree greater (+41.0 percent). Specialists accounted for more than three fourths of the vegetation in the physician (per capita) workforce from 1980 to 1999 despite concorded widely publicized policy and funding efforts to increase the number of primary care physicians.

There was no great resurgence of primary care physicians in the United States at the completion of the 20th century. Instead, the period from 1980 within 1999 continued a relentless, relatively rapid expansion of the subspecialized physician workforce. This is not virtuous news for the development of a balanced physician workforce cogitation to be necessary for effective, sustainable healthcare. unwithered strategies are needed to exhibit and sustain primary care physicians.

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Note: The information and opinions contained in research from the Graham Center do not necessarily cast reproach the views or the policy of the AAFP.

Adapted from Graham Center One-Pager #22 Biola H verdant LA, Phillips RL, Guirguis-Blake J Fryer GE The U primary care physician workforce: minimal expansion 1980-1999. October 2003. Available at: www.graham-center.org/x467.xml. From the Robert Graham Center: Policy Studies in Family Practice and Primary Care, 1350 Connecticut Ave., NW Suite 950 Washington, DC 20036 (telephone: 202-986-5708; fax: 202-986-7034; e-mail: policy@aafp.org).

COPYRIGHT 2003 American Academy of Family Physicians

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