AKRON, Ohio — The Association of American Medical Colleges projects by 2034, there will be a national shortage of physicians between 38,000 and 124,000. 

The ripple effects of a shortage like that in patient care could be dire.


What You Need To Know

  • The Health Resources and Services Administration predicts that Ohio will have a primary care physician shortage of 13% by 2025

  • NEOMED said many things contribute to the projected shortage, but it’s largely a supply and demand issue

  • To prevent a shortage, one doctor said it starts with medical school debt relief and more funding for primary care physician education

Training and keeping physicians in Ohio is the mission of Northeast Ohio Medical University

In fact, 57% of the College of Medicine’s entire alumni base is practicing here in our state.

Dr. Paige Daily is living her dream. She is a pediatric resident at Akron Children’s Hospital

It’s right where she wanted to be.

 

“We treat the medicine and we treat their illness, but we also treat them as little people. This is just such a huge, monumental part of their life and growing up and so being here may be just a day for them. It may be two months for them. It may be a year for them and I just want to play a role in that and having a good experience while they have to be in the hospital," said Daily. 

Match Day was a good day.

“Super surreal when they came out with this year’s House Staff and to see myself up there was pretty cool and pretty exciting,” she said.

The Northeast Ohio Medical University graduate grew up in Tallmadge and volunteered at Akron Children’s Hospital in high school. She earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Akron.

“I grew up in northeast Ohio. I own a home in Northeast Ohio. I never want to leave it," said Daily.

But her story is rather unique because not all doctors who train in Ohio stay in Ohio.

“I’m one of two people in my class that are from the area and wants to stay in the area in my residency class,” she said.

The predicted nationwide physician shortage is of growing concern. The Health Resources and Services Administration predicts that Ohio will have a primary care physician shortage of 13% by 2025. 

“There’s a lot of other options in the medical field that they would rather do and it’s a lot less schooling and a lot less money. So, I think that’s a huge role in it," said Daily.

NEOMED said many things contribute to the projected shortage, but it’s largely a supply and demand issue.

The population is growing, people are living longer and there just aren’t enough doctors to keep up with care.

“Having a large patient load can really cause a lot of burnout and then we would have even less physicians and that’s more time that everyone has to put in. And we also have families and we have lives and we’re people too. And so we have to be able to leave work at work and if we can’t do that because we don’t have enough physicians and we have a growing amount of patients, I think that can be scary for the future," she said.

Regardless of the challenges ahead, Daily is inspired by her patients' resilience and she looks forward to a future full of caring for her neighbors.

Dr. Elisabeth Young is the vice president for Clinical Affairs and the Dean of College of Medicine at NEOMED. She said the shortage will be not just primary care physicians, but specialty physicians, too. 

In addition to population growth and aging, she said medical school debt is a huge factor contributing to the supply and demand issue.

“The average debt of a medical school student in the United States is over $200,000. So, when they begin to make choices about what specialty they’re going into and perhaps where they ultimately practice, they consider things like support systems and family. They consider the cost of living. They consider the job offer they get," said Young.

Young said the physician shortage statistics aren’t taking into account the pandemic. We know many have retired early or have switched jobs throughout COVID-19, so it’s possible the shortage will be even more severe.

Young said while it is a national physician shortage, not every area is affected the same. Rural and underserved communities will be most impacted.

“There will be decreased access to physician care, which means there likely will be increased non-physician care. There’s going to be increased remote care or virtual care. There might be increased travel to care which we know will increase cost, gas, food, lodging, and what you hope does not happen, but is most concerning is delay of care," she said.

So, what can be done to prevent that? Young said it starts with medical school debt relief and more funding for primary care physician education.