The Nation's Physician Workforce: Options for Balancing Supply and Requirements (1996)
Chapter: FRONT MATTER
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COMMITTEE ON THE U.S. PHYSICIAN SUPPLY
NEAL A. VANSELOW,* Co-Chair, Professor of Medicine,
Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, Louisiana
CAROL A. ASCHENBRENER, Chancellor,
University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha
HOWARD L. BAILIT,* Senior Vice President for Health Services Research,
Ætna Health Plans, Hartford, Connecticut
SPENCER FOREMAN,* President,
Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, New York
KAY KNIGHT HANLEY,† Hanley & Hanley, M.D., P.A.,
Clearwater, Florida
M. ALFRED HAYNES,*
Palos Verdes Peninsula, California
ROBERT M. KRUGHOFF, President,
Center for the Study of Services, Washington, D.C.
EDWARD B. PERRIN,*† Professor,
Department of Health Services, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle
UWE E. REINHARDT,* James Madison Professor of Political Economy,
Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey
MARY LEE SEIBERT,† Associate Provost,
Ithaca College, Ithaca, New York
GEORGE F. SHELDON, Professor and Chair,
Department of Surgery, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill
Study Staff
Kathleen N. Lohr, Director,
Division of Health Care Services
Don Tiller,
Division Administrative Assistant
Preface
The U.S. health care system is in a period of enormous change. Catalyzed by market forces rather than government-initiated reforms, these changes are fundamental and are occurring rapidly. Although it is difficult to predict what the system will look like when a period of stability is reached, it is clear that the changes being made in its organization and in the financing of health care will have an impact on all components of the health care workforce. The numbers and types of health professionals required and the roles of each health profession will surely be much different in the future than in the past.
This study by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) is the result of a number of widely held concerns about the size of the U.S. physician workforce and the direction in which it is moving. Despite numerous studies in the past 15 years, which have indicated that the U.S. physician supply will exceed requirements, the number of doctors in residency training has continued to grow each year. At the same time, there is evidence that the demand for physician services will be reduced as a result of the growth of managed care. All of this is taking place at a time that the United States has no coordinated and widely accepted physician workforce policy, as had been laid out during the period that comprehensive health care reform at the national level was being debated.
Sensing that the nation was drifting in terms of a sound, defensible approach to its physician workforce needs and recognizing that a physician surplus carried at least the potential for adverse consequences, the IOM elected to undertake a short and focused study of the aggregate U.S. physician supply. The limited scope of the study should not be construed to imply the absence of other important physician workforce issues, such as specialty and geographic mal-
distribution or lack of diversity. These problems are far from solved and must be addressed in their own right.
The present study was designed to examine three questions:
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Is there an aggregate physician surplus?
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If there is a surplus, what is its likely impact on cost, quality, and access to health care and on the efficient use of human resources?
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What realistic steps might be taken to deal with any surplus that exists?
A broadly representative IOM committee met on a single occasion to discuss these questions. Prior to the meeting, committee members were provided with an extensive series of relevant articles from the published literature and a background paper prepared by IOM staff. It is a tribute to the hard work of both committee members and Kathleen Lohr, Director of the IOM Division of Health Care Services, who staffed the study, that so much consensus on the three questions could be reached in the short time available.
It is our hope that this report will stimulate renewed interest in physician supply issues and catalyze efforts to resolve the problems it identifies.
Neal A. Vanselow, M.D.
Co-Chair
Don E. Detmer, M.D.
Co-Chair
Acknowledgments
At its single meeting in July 1995, the committee profited greatly from thoughtful and informative presentations from two experts in this field—John Eisenberg, M.D., Chairman and Physician-in-Chief, Department of Medicine, Georgetown University; and Fitzhugh Mullan, M.D., Assistant Surgeon General and Director of the Bureau of Health Professions of the Department of Health and Human Services—and it wishes to express its deep appreciation for their efforts. Also very helpful were other staff of the Health Resources and Services Administration, including Carol Bazell, M.D., the government's project officer for the Bureau of Health Professions, Philip Salladay of the Bureau of Primary Health Care, and Robert Politzer, Chief, Workforce Analysis and Research.
The committee also acknowledges the considerable assistance rendered to this project by several members of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) staff. Molla Donaldson, a senior staff officer, was generous in sharing materials and insights from a related study on primary care. Holly Dawkins, research assistant at the IOM, helped with checking facts and improving the manuscript at a key juncture. Moeen Darwiesh, the IOM's computer specialist, and Nina Spruill, the financial associate for the Division of Health Care Services, rendered key assistance when most needed. Finally, Don Tiller, the division's administrative assistant, graciously undertook to be project assistant at a time when he was already fully occupied.
