The president of the American Medical Association addressed the state’s top doctors about key healthcare issues on Friday, including Iowa’s worsening shortage of rural physicians. Dr. Bruce Scott is an Otolaryngologist and a Head and Neck surgery specialist with a private practice in Louisville, Kentucky. Scott says one of his priorities as AMA president is to seek out ways to turn around the exodus of experienced doctors from our nation’s rural areas.
Scott spoke before members of the Iowa Medical Society in Des Moines and says he’s seeing similar problems in his home state of Kentucky. Scott says rural Iowa physicians are retiring in droves and they’re not being replaced by new doctors due to the lower wages, increased administrative burdens, and the rising cost of practice in rural areas.
It’s a nationwide problem, as Scott says forecasts show the country will be short 83-thousand doctors in the next decade. He says only four or five percent of today’s medical students identify as being from a rural area.
Studies find 80% of graduating residents stay within 80 miles of the hospital where they did their residency. Besides medical doctors to address our physical ills, Iowa is also lacking in -mental- health professionals. Beyond incentives for those who pursue degree programs, Scott says licensing and regulatory changes could bring more people into service, but progress is slow.
The Iowa Medical Society, established in 1850, is the largest and oldest statewide professional association for Iowa physicians representing more than 5,000 members.
