Ping!
thanks, bfl
“People can survive one organ system failing and even two,” the senior doctor said to me after we were finished. “But when that third one goes ...”
Primary care is delivered in a variety of settings by a variety of professionals, including nurses and physicians’ assistants, but it is anchored by family-practice doctors, general internists, pediatricians and, for many women, gynecologists.
The news got worse in September, when The Journal of the American Medical Association published a study showing that just 2 percent of graduating medical students are choosing to enter general internal medicine.
Strike one.
But a recent survey indicates that the primary care crisis may not be looming on the horizon; it may already be at our back door.
Nearly half of them said they planned in the next three years to reduce the number of patients they see or to stop practicing altogether.
Only one-third felt they had the time to fully communicate with and to treat all patients, and 60 percent felt that paperwork demands resulted in less time spent with patients.
The primary care crisis raises questions not just about future access but about current morale.
Strike two.
Mr. Obama and his team may find ways to give more Americans access to the waiting room, but what if there’s no doctor on the other side of the door? The crisis in primary care must be addressed before any real change can occur; otherwise, the flood of new patients may instead turn out to be a final strike for our ailing health care system.
And at that point for all of us, doctors and patients, the game would be over.