The Physician Workforce and Counting What Counts in Primary Care

The primary care physician workforce: ethical and policy implications.

PURPOSE We undertook a study to examine the characteristics of countries exporting physicians to the United States according to their relative contribution to the primary care supply in the United States. METHODS We used data from the World Health Organization and from the American Medical Association Physician Masterfile to gather sociodemographic, health system, and health characteristics o...

The primary care physician workforce in Massachusetts: implications for the workforce in rural, small town America.

CONTEXT Small towns across the United States struggle to maintain an adequate primary care workforce. PURPOSE To examine factors contributing to physician satisfaction and retention in largely rural areas in Massachusetts, a state with rural pockets and small towns. METHODS A survey mailed in 2004-2005 to primary care physicians, practicing in areas designated by the state as rural, queried...

Primary care physician workforce and Medicare beneficiaries' health outcomes.

CONTEXT Despite a widespread interest in increasing the numbers of primary care physicians to improve care and to moderate costs, the relationship of the primary care physician workforce to patient-level outcomes remains poorly understood. OBJECTIVE To measure the association between the adult primary care physician workforce and individual patient outcomes. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANT...

Projecting US primary care physician workforce needs: 2010-2025.

PURPOSE We sought to project the number of primary care physicians required to meet US health care utilization needs through 2025 after passage of the Affordable Care Act. METHODS In this projection of workforce needs, we used the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey to calculate the use of office-based primary care in 2008. We used US Census Bureau projections to account for demographic changes ...

Why does a U.S. primary care physician workforce crisis matter?