Although they found areas of partial agreement, two experts who believe the threat of an imminent physician shortage is real disagreed with the basic premise of a recent Health Affairs report that concluded that the projected shortage was “greatly overestimated.”
The report's authors, researchers with the Columbia Business School in New York and the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School in Philadelphia, wrote that, with proper staffing, new scheduling methods and effective use of health information technology, “This projected shortage can be completely eliminated.”
“Our position is that you do have to do that stuff, but you also have to train a couple more thousand doctors a year—it's not an either-or proposition,” said Dr. Atul Grover, chief public policy officer for the Association of American Medical Colleges. “I don't think what they're saying is completely off because there are ways we can improve practices and we need to make better use of our professionals' time.”