GRIN Verlag Primary Care Provider Shortage: An Evaluation of Three Policy Intervention Proposals

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2017 in the subject Health - Miscellaneous, grade: B+, Loyola University Chicago, language: English, abstract: We are proposing the following solutions to the challenge of primary healthcare provider shortages in rural Washington: that undergraduate medical education (UME) pathway in the two medical schools in the state be altered; visa-waivers, loan-forgiveness and direct incentive programs expanded; and residency funding be increased. These are workable with the right support and resources. We understand that primary healthcare physician shortages will worsen more and more over the next decade if nothing is done now; and there is no doubt that communities have been feeling the impacts of shortages. Since none of the plans proposed here can work to reduce the expected decrease, the right combination of strategies will results in an increase in the number of primary healthcare physicians per population in rural Washington, which is the main aim of this proposal.