Can Tx Med Schools Produce More Primary Care Docs?
Should Texas medical schools be responsible for relieving the state’s primary care shortage? Advocates for family physicians think so.
They want state lawmakers to reward medical schools that groom young doctors for family medicine — and penalize those that don’t.
“From a public policy standpoint, why can’t we punish and incentivize taxpayer-supported medical schools to produce the doctors that we need?” asked Tom Banning, CEO of the Texas Academy of Family Physicians. “It takes a decade to train a family physician, and the pipeline is already half empty.”
But to medical schools, a family practice quota system is ...
Comments (2)
afreeland
No, we cannot hold medical schools responsible for what specialties their students choose. We certainly can, and should, push for medical school admissions committees to value the characteristics that predispose students to choose needed specialties such as family medicine. There is a significant body of information now about what some of those characteristics are, especially for the dramatically undermanned area of rural primary care.
Arthur Freeland
Family Physician
benny7
Ms. Ramshaw,
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU.
I have been trying to tell anyone who would listen exactly what you pointed out in this article. I just wish someone in Washington would read this. NONE of the current health care debate matters (public option or not, tort reform or not, insurance portability or not, etc) if there are not enough doctors to see the patients. ACCESS, COSTS, and OUTCOMES will all be worse without addressing the primary care physician shortage. ACCESS, COSTS, and OUTCOMES will all be improved if there is an adequate number of primary care physicians. It is that simple. Period. Why can't our all mighty politicians open their eyes and use a little common sense and understand this simple point.
Ben Edwards, MD
Family Physician in Post, TX