Sharon Phelps
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By Sharon A. Phelps, | Women’s Watch
Recently, I have been reading about the staggering number of medical professionals leaving their profession because of all the pressure and burnout being placed on them due to significant staff shortages and increased workload.
In a 2023 American Medical Association survey, one in five physicians stated they would likely leave their current practice within two years. This survey received 20,000 respondents at 124 institutions across the country.
Reasons they cited included burnout, workload, fear of infection, anxiety and depression due to COVID-19 and the many other infectious diseases on the horizon. Health organizations are currently tracking measles and bird flu outbreaks in the U.S., and a new Ebola outbreak in Uganda.
Upon further investigation into this troubling data, I learned that this goes back to 1980, when a government report predicted there would be 70,000 too many physicians practicing by 1990, so medical schools established a moratorium on increasing class size.
The biggest error in that report was that it didn’t account for our nation’s rising population at the rate of 8.4%, nor the fact that the number of people reaching the age of 65 or older would rise by 34%.
Though this decision was reversed in 2005 so more students could be trained as physicians, the American Medical Association reports that by 2036, our nation will still have a shortage of 86,000 physicians.
Another horrifying trend in the medical field is that primary care physicians are undervalued by our government and insurance companies and are underpaid, especially women physicians.
AMA reports that female PCPs’ beginning salary is considerably less than males’ beginning salary. A 2022 study of 54,479 academic physicians reported that women physicians are offered lower starting salaries right out of training in 93% of 45 different specialties. These facts alone have caused another troubling trend, which means that two-thirds of newly graduated physicians are choosing to specialize, which usually doubles their beginning salary.
Yet primary care physicians are those who provide us with our annual physical and periodic checkups that may detect problems early on and serve as the gatekeepers for our referrals to specialists. They are also the doctors who spend the most time getting to know us.
To complicate matters even more, in 2023 Physicians Advocacy Institute reported that 80% of all doctors are now employed by hospitals or corporations. Some are even purchased by private equity firms.
When for-profit firms acquire a practice, they may allow only 15 minutes per patient for a visit as well as increased paperwork for that visit, leaving less time for the physician to conduct his/her practice in the manner in which they choose. Medically trained staff do not run large wealthy corporations, so they have no idea what it is like to treat patients with complicated medical conditions that cannot be completed in the 15-minute time allotment. No wonder doctors are feeling stressed and consider leaving the medical field entirely.
Even more troubling is our current political climate, which has cut our Health and
Human Services Department by 25%. These cuts include scientists, doctors, support staff and researchers. At a time when we in America should have the ultimate best health care, we are going to fall short once again and our health care workers will be forced to do more with less, leading to more stress and dissatisfaction in their workplace.
The National Institutes of Health, the nation’s leading agency for medical research, is undergoing massive layoffs as the federal government cuts budgets. This agency hass aved millions of lives, making significant progress in fighting cancer, HIV and Alzheimer’s disease.
With all of this bad news, I have to say I feel lucky and privileged that I have had the same primary care physician since coming to the Valley in 2011. I am presently being treated by two other specialists monitoring my health care. I still feel that my medical care is some of the best in this country and I intend to tell my health care practitioners that I value them and am grateful for their dedicated service and support the next time I receive care from them.
They need to hear this from their patients. I will also continue to solicit our lawmakers regarding unfavorable legislation for our health care workers and will speak out and take action to help protect their valuable work and service.
Hope is on the horizon as new technology is developed and changes in practice patterns are made to accommodate doing more with less. Using nonphysician practitioners and artificial intelligence may also help. We can only hope some of these existing dangerous patterns will stop before it is too late to reverse them.
Editor’s note: Women’s Watch is a cooperative writing effort of the local chapters of the American Association of University Women, the League of Women Voters and the National Organization for Women. This piece was authored by Sharon A. Phelps of the American Association of University Women. Please send your comments to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.
