Many doctors plan to quit or cut back: survey

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Primary care doctors in the United States feel overworked and nearly half plan to either cut back on how many patients they see or quit medicine entirely, according to a survey released on Tuesday.

And 60 percent of 12,000 general practice physicians found they would not recommend medicine as a career.

"The whole thing has spun out of control. I plan to retire early even though I still love seeing patients. The process has just become too burdensome," the Physicians' Foundation, which conducted the survey, quoted one of the doctors as saying.

The survey adds to building evidence that not enough internal medicine or family practice doctors are trained or practicing in the United States, although there are plenty of specialist physicians.

Health care reform is near the top of the list of priorities for both Congress and president-elect Barack Obama, and doctor's groups are lobbying for action to reduce their workload and hold the line on payments for treating Medicare, Medicaid and other patients with federal or state health insurance.

The Physicians' Foundation, founded in 2003 as part of a settlement in an anti-racketeering lawsuit among physicians, medical societies, and insurer Aetna, Inc., mailed surveys to 270,000 primary care doctors and 50,000 practicing specialists.

The 12,000 answers are considered representative of doctors as a whole, the group said, with a margin of error of about 1 percent. It found that 78 percent of those who answered believe there is a shortage of primary care doctors.

More than 90 percent said the time they devote to non-clinical paperwork has increased in the last three years and 63 percent said this has caused them to spend less time with each patient.

Eleven percent said they plan to retire and 13 percent said they plan to seek a job that removes them from active patient care. Twenty percent said they will cut back on patients seen and 10 percent plan to move to part-time work.

Seventy six percent of physicians said they are working at "full capacity" or "overextended and overworked".

Many of the health plans proposed by members of Congress, insurers and employers's groups, as well as Obama's, suggest that electronic medical records would go a long way to saving time and reducing costs.

(Reporting by Maggie Fox; editing by Chris Wilson)

http://health.yahoo.com/news/reuters/us_do...usa_survey.html

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Thanks, Obama!

[Mononoke28 135]

Cry me a river!

Diana

[Amby 490]

The nurses do way more for way less

[Chica Yeyé 41]

The nurses do way more for way less

Nursing school is still not the same as medical school my child.

[Amby 490]

The nurses do way more for way less

Nursing school is still not the same as medical school my child.

I know! I'm just saying they do way more!

[Heracles 417]

One guess what is going to happen once UHS kicks in. For NHS to work in AUS both doctors and nurses earn significantly less than those here. A friend of mine who works in an ER in Aus earns about $50K and works 55+ hours.

Edited November 18, 2008 by Aficionado

[Amby 490]

I'm moving to Africa and helping some people that actually need help instead of some whiney azz people who think they're entitled to free healthcare.

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

Yeah! Then the AMA will have positions open for my Husband to immigrate and get into the guild!

[brnidokiegurl 0]

actually there already is a shortage of dr for the elder (my mom with alz) she had a good dr, they transf her to a partner dr, she left, now transf her again to yet another one to learn her case all over again. So i ask is there another on my part of town that would take new patients (no) the only one that will takes new patients is even further than we go now.

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

Hey does anyone know where can I find out what kind of shortage of doctors we have and where? I wanna find out about surgeons. That's what Waleed wants to build his career in.

[msu17 0]

Hey does anyone know where can I find out what kind of shortage of doctors we have and where? I wanna find out about surgeons. That's what Waleed wants to build his career in.

Have you checked on AMA's website? In their daily rounds they are always listing stuff. http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/18442.html

This is exactly why I'm NOT going into primary care. Ok, and nurses do a ton of work, but so do doctors. It's just a different type of stuff. And when was the last time a nurse was sued for millions by a dumb a$$ patient who wants a free ride? The skill level and amount of schooling should = higher salary.

I still think a basic change in how much insurance pays for various procedures would help this problem. If specialists got paid less for each procedure and primary care got paid more we could get a lot more people going into it. But as it is, if I can do the same schooling (or slightly more) in a job I enjoy the same and get paid 100K more, I'm going to do it.

Edited November 18, 2008 by msu17

[HAL 9000 96]

Hey does anyone know where can I find out what kind of shortage of doctors we have and where? I wanna find out about surgeons. That's what Waleed wants to build his career in.

Have you checked on AMA's website? In their daily rounds they are always listing stuff. http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/18442.html

This is exactly why I'm NOT going into primary care. Ok, and nurses do a ton of work, but so do doctors. It's just a different type of stuff. And when was the last time a nurse was sued for millions by a dumb a$ patient who wants a free ride? The skill level and amount of schooling should = higher salary.

I still think a basic change in how much insurance pays for various procedures would help this problem. If specialists got paid less for each procedure and primary care got paid more we could get a lot more people going into it. But as it is, if I can do the same schooling (or slightly more) in a job I enjoy the same and get paid 100K more, I'm going to do it.

Just avoid neurosurgery... you'll be divorced in less time than it actually took you to finish your specialization.

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

That's funny! My 20 year old sister just told me last month she's going to be a neurosurgeon and she's getting married next spring for the first time!

[S and S 12]

Hmmm, I'll have to pass this information on to my husband as well. He hasn't decided which area he wants to specialize in yet. Of course he has to pass the USMLE first and then do his residency.