Workforce Study Shows 'Severe' Shortage in Massachusetts

In its 2006 Physician Workforce Reform report, the AAFP warned of a pending shortage of family physicians. That shortage now is showing up in Massachusetts, which recently mandated that all of its residents have health insurance.

The 2007 Physician Workforce Study produced by the Massachusetts Medical Society, or MMS, reports a "severe" shortage of family physicians in that state for the second year in a row.

"Among the new specialties showing strain are family practice and internal medicine, two of the most important to providing adequate preventive care and minimizing the use of emergency departments," says the report's executive summary (40-page PDF; About PDFs). "Newly insured (Massachusetts) residents may find it difficult to get timely appointments with physicians due to these shortages."

The MMS report points out that statewide shortages in "(n)ew specialties, such as family practice and internal medicine, have now emerged as severe and critical, respectively, for the second year in a row, underscoring the warning from primary care physicians in Massachusetts and the nation that a workforce shortage is imminent."

The strain also shows in the amount of time required to recruit family physicians, according to the report. Family medicine is the third most difficult specialty to recruit for in Massachusetts after internal medicine and neurosurgery. Twenty-seven percent of medical directors included in the study reported problems with recruiting family physicians, compared with 7 percent who had trouble recruiting anesthesiologists, emergency medicine physicians, OB/Gyns, orthopedic surgeons, pediatricians, radiologists and rheumatologists.

The stress on the primary care workforce translates into "difficult" access issues for patients, according to an MMS news release on the survey.

"Less than half (42 percent) of respondents who made an appointment to see a primary care physician could be seen within a week, a drop of 11 percent from the previous two years," the release says. "The most commonly cited reason (23 percent of respondents, a rise of 13 percent from the previous year) for delays in appointments was overcrowded doctors' offices."

"Massachusetts may be leading the nation in health care reform, but we're falling behind in a critical aspect of patient care, and that's the supply of physicians," said B. Dale Magee, M.D., MMS president, in the news release.

Magee's comment echoes views expressed by the AAFP, according to Perry Pugno, M.D., M.P.H., director of the AAFP Division of Medical Education.

"I'm pleased that such a prestigious medical organization as the Massachusetts Medical Society recognizes the importance of the pending shortage of primary care physicians, the significant impact it will have on health care access and, ultimately, the health of the nation," said Pugno. He noted the MMS report "appreciates that the economic aspects of our current health care system have a lot to do with this, and that if there's any real hope for change, the economic issues have to be addressed."