Pennsylvania Physician Supply Back In The News
Posted by Clark Venable on 5/7/2007
A recent Health Affairs article titled Changes In Physician Supply And Scope of Practice During A Malpractice Crisis: Evidence From Pennsylvania has gotten a great deal of national media attention. It's conclusion was as follows:
I've been thinking about this article for a while now. I've written to the lead author asking about the inclusion of medical residents-in-training in their statistics but have yet to hear back. Including residents may hide important trends. For example, new residency programs may have opened during the study period. Trading doctors who are fresh out of internship for experienced specialists is not a good deal, but the numbers as used wouldn't show this.
Another question I have is 'compared to what?' What has happened in other states during this time? According to the Dauphin County Medical Society, among the twenty most populous states, only Pennsylvania and California saw their physician supply drop during the study period. All others saw an increase of 10-20% in physician supply.
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