Physician shortage and heavy workload threaten primary care, says healthcare expert

Patients who have experienced long wait times for an appointment with their primary care physician shouldn’t expect improvement in the coming years, according to experts. An analysis from the National Center of Health Workforce projects a shortage of 87,000 primary care physicians by 2037.

The shortage of physicians is only one issue, according to Zeev Neuwirth, a physician, healthcare executive and podcast host. The hefty workload of existing physicians contributes to patient issues.

“You can’t point your fingers at the primary care doctors themselves,” he said. “When you look at the support they have around them, they’ll have a medical assistant or a nurse if they’re lucky. My specialists have two, three, four, sometimes more people around them, supporting them, allowing them to do the thing they were trained [to do]. Primary care doctors are spending two, three, four hours a day doing data entry and data retrieval.”

Neuwirth suggests a new level of clinical caregiver to address the complex combination of issues facing primary care.

“We’re going to have to do what third world countries do, which is deputize people who are not clinicians to go and do healthcare,” he said. “There are community health worker types in other countries who get trained and go into rural areas into people’s homes. They do checkups and visits.”

With a team of people able to do the hands-on examinations, the primary care physician can sit in a “control room” and direct the care of an entire community, he said.

For a more in-depth conversation with Neuwirth, tune into the HiFi Health News podcast, where he will be featured on an upcoming episode.