Primary Care Disrupted

A shortage of primary care providers is driving more people to seek routine care in emergency settings. In Rhode Island, safety-net clinics are under pressure as clinicians retire or burn out, and patients say it’s harder to find care as they lose connections to familiar doctors.

Hospitals are increasingly stretching a velvet rope, offering “concierge service” to an affluent clientele. Critics say the practice exacerbates primary care shortages.

Many proposals have been floated about how to address the nation’s primary care problem. They range from training slots to medical school debt forgiveness but often sidestep comprehensive payment reform.

Company health clinics are most common at large workplaces, but some small employers say they see advantages, too: healthier workers, lower costs, and better access to primary care.

LaFayette and other rural areas of the country tend to have high rates of health problems but not enough doctors. Many are adapting by investing in nontraditional prevention and treatment options.

A Tulsa-based gas station chain is using its knowledge of how to serve customers and locate shops in easy-to-find spots to enter the urgent care industry, which has doubled in size over the past decade. Experts question how the explosion of convenient clinics will affect care costs and wait times.

The Vermont senator sees beefing up the primary care workforce as a critical step in expanding Americans’ access to health care.

With the community’s help, former co-workers came together to fill gaps in care left by the loss of doctors and departments at a Gallup, New Mexico, hospital.

The number of DOs is surging, and more than half of them practice in primary care, including in rural areas hit hard by doctor shortages.

Community paramedicine is expanding nationwide, including in rural areas, as health care providers, insurers, and state governments recognize its potential to improve health and save money.

Researchers found that, while a University of California medical training program has diversified the system’s pool of medical students, there’s not enough long-term data to know whether graduates return to practice where they’re needed most.

Patients in rural northeastern Nevada soon will have fewer providers and resources, after a local hospital decided to close its medical residency program. Nationally, the number of rural residency slots has grown during the past few years but still makes up just 2% of programs and residents nationwide.