The Gap Between Pennsylvania And Kentucky

Similar to my home state of Louisiana, Tennessee has also struggled with a chronic shortage of rural primary care physicians. While this statistic does depict a true challenge for our two states, over the years Meharry Medical College has done an exceptional job in inspiring medical students to one-day practice in a rural setting and bring about better health care to underserved individuals, regardless of race or ethnicity. This aspect

For both states, the number is 27-29% of the population. Although, Los Angeles is often branded as the entertainment capital of the world, it does not cause significant improvement in the total number of bars for California. The number of bars is less than the average for the whole country. However, the rate was counted on per capita basis; if it were on other basis as per location, the number of bars would have been higher. Virginia has more bars than California; the number is about 1/2 times as large as that of the United States. Still, the rate is on the per capita basis. The density of religious organizations in Virginia is the same as that of the United States. In California, the density is lower, and there are fewer religious groups than the country’s average (California, 2015). It means that Californians are not very

‘Some counties don't have certain types of doctors” (Leonard 2). If an individual only has one insurer that supports that area, that insurer may not cover that doctor or hospital in that area, which can result to that individual driving far out of their area, just so they can see a doctor or get their medical treatment for a reasonable price. Individuals are also being limited with options because their insurers may see them as costly, and they could force the individual to go to under resourced hospitals (Goodnough 3). This shows that even if an individual does not live in a rural area and has plenty of options to choose from, they can still be limited in location because their medical treatment can be seen as too expensive, and the insurance company has to figure out a way to save money.

The United States has a significant “delivery of care” issue wherein physicians (and other HCPs) are concentrated in and around major cities and densely populated areas. This leaves rural populations with fewer physicians and more difficult access to care.

Given that there is a shortage of physicians nationwide it is important to expand the scope of mid-level practitioners such as nurse practitioners and physician’s assistant, who are pivotal in treating the mass influx of patients, especially in underserved areas. Rural communities tend to be poorer, and unable to afford to hire enough physicians, and many rural Americans are less well insured, driving the cost of treatment up (RHF, 2015). The lack of resources and funding in underserved areas means even less incentive for physicians to practice in rural areas. Mid-level practitioners are trained to treat patients with low-level illnesses, provide care to patients with chronic and acute diseases, as well as refer patients with more complex issues

The decline in hospital capacity was accompanied by a rise in staffing. Full-time equivalent personnel rose (Malagi & Kamath, 2016). Most of the additional personnel in hospitals are not focused on patient care but management or administration purposes. The American Hospital Association data shows that outpatient department visits have risen per 1,000 persons indicating that capacity for ambulatory services has risen overtime. Emergency departments have reduced with a larger percentage of closures being in rural areas. Compared to hospitals, physicians have continued to increase. Specialists have increased except for radiologists and general surgeons. There is, however, an uneven distribution of physicians between rural and urban areas. There is an estimated shortage of 3,000 physicians in nonmetropolitan areas. In addition to an increase in physicians, there are new forms of acute-care facilities. There are relatively new facilities that have been accredited. Ambulatory surgery centers have, for instance, risen (Best et al.,

Americans will have insurance coverage. The US has an unequal distribution of the primary care, thus; the rural areas have been left with only few physicians. Many physicians prefer practicing in urban areas because of the lucrative advantage, better technology or demographic preference. Many sources including Green et al, of Anita Phigpen Perry School of nursing confirms that the reason for the shortage of physicians in the rural areas is due to the tendency of people in the rural areas being poorer, sicker and older . This segment of people tends to be uninsured, and physicians are attracted to urban and suburb areas where revenues are. Today with the ACA policies, people in the underserved area have better access to physicians, although the shortage persists. The US Department of Health and Human Services, states that to help strengthen access to the primary care workforce, the Affordable Care Act invests in health work force training, including: a $ 1.5 billion investment in National Health Service Corps Scholarship and loan repayment programs and $ 230 million over five years to primarily train medical residents in community-bases. However, do we have enough experts?

To respond to these legislative changes, there must be an increase in the professional workforce of rural health. The existing workforce will need extensive training to deal with the new aspects of the Affordable Care Act, and new professionals need to be encouraged to practice in rural areas. The following are potential methods for increasing the health care workforce of rural and frontier America:

Primary care is the backbone of many industrialized nations, but is the US one of them? Unfortunately, the answer is no. The US lags behind such developed nations in its accessibility of primary care by a huge difference. The United States healthcare system fails to ensure the timely preventative and primary care for its residents. The current estimates indicate that there is merely one physician for every 2,500 patients. Not only Medicare beneficiaries, but also privately insured adults struggle in accessing the right primary care physician at the right time. Moreover, maldistribution of physicians only exacerbates the problem, especially for those residing in health professional shortage areas (HPSA).15 Approximately, sixty-five million Americans live in designated primary care shortage areas.13 Such underserved population faces higher disease and death rates and health disparities that then result in higher rates of hospitalizations and emergency department visits—in other words, expensive medical bills.21 More governmental control on the geographic location of primary care physicians can be a first-step to fixing the shortage problem.

Another threat is the current state of rural hospitals nationwide. According to the case study, about 25% of Americans live in rural areas and only about 10% of physicians actually practice in rural areas. There is a 15% gap in the ratio of rural citizens to available practicing physicians. This is a threat to ELH’s need to attract and hire more physicians. In relation to rural hospitals, citizens have longer drive times to their medical facilities. This causes them to delay routine visits which subsequently exacerbates

University of Kentucky health care is the largest academic health care in the Lexington, accredited with Joint commission/ DNV health care accreditation (Fact book consumer report, 2015). Using information technology Innovation and innovative clinical approaches such as the use of Electronic Medical Record (EMR) has enabled significant progress in geographically dispersed services. Integration and partnering with both rural and community-based health care providers has strengthened

I also was quite startled by the health disparities rural populations face in regard to access to care issues and recruiting health care providers. I am originally from the state of Iowa -- I saw many parallels between rural health care in West Virginia and Iowa. In college I did my nursing clinical rotation in a rural area in Iowa and I remember how hard it was for patients to find transportation to a health care facility. It was especially difficult for patients who needed specialty health care services like oncology. This is where I really think innovative information technologies like Telehealth can make a difference in rural populations’ health outcomes. Hopefully, more rural health care centers will make the commitment to adopting

According to Gawande’s investigation, McAllen is an outlier in terms of U.S. health care data; this city has the highest spending of health care in the country. Its neighboring city, El Paso, shares similar demographics and provides a similar level of care but oddly enough, the average cost of receiving health care in McAllen was double of that in El Paso. Gawande later finds that the high cost of health care in McAllen provided more of everything: diagnostic testing, hospital treatment, surgery, and home care (Gawande, 5). Indeed, we cannot point fingers at the doctors if the procedures were deemed necessary. However, there are some doctors who saw their practice primarily as a stream of revenue. Gawande held Hospital Renaissance largely responsible for the high cost of health care in McAllen. This particular hospital has a reputation for aggressively recruiting high-volume physicians to become investors and send the patients there. In return, they would receive their fee for service and a

This does not seem in part to be too concerning, but in a town of well over two thousand people, it can be a hassle to make appointments to see the doctor, if appointments are available at all. From Star City, the nearest other doctor is over a thirty minute drive away, and this could have serious repercussions for anyone that needs immediate attention. Star City is not the only town with this same problem in Arkansas, and this should provide worry overall for the health of Arkansans. As a citizen of Star City, my concern with health care began at an early age, and as I got older I realized that I wanted to give back to the state I was raised in. If I were to complete a degree in the medical field, I wouldn’t be able to solve all of the problems that plague Arkansas’ health care system, but I hope that my contribution could help smaller towns like Star City get the help they so desperately need. With such a deficit of students looking into health care careers, the health care field is now more important than ever for the

Building a healthcare workforce pipeline is vital to offsetting the looming primary care physician shortage. In Tennessee, there are multiple approaches to addressing that issue. The Tennessee Rural Partnership (TRP), an operating subsidiary of the Tennessee Hospital Association, actively exposes high school students, medical residents and other healthcare students to rural often; so that they may understand the varied levels of rural that will help them later make informed decisions about living and practicing in rural community.