New data in study shows number of patients having difficulty getting care has doubled in two years and wait times for non-emergency care are longer than average

Waltham, Mass. -- June 6, 2005 -- Massachusetts patients are facing reduced access to health care and longer wait times for appointments with medical specialists, as the state continues to deal with a shortage of practicing physicians, especially in six key specialties, according to research released today by the Massachusetts Medical Society, the statewide professional association of physicians.

Continued physician shortages and reduced patient access to care were two of the key findings in the Society’s 2005 Physician Workforce Study, the organization’s annual comprehensive examination of the physician workforce in the state. The 2005 study was the fourth annual analysis of the physician workforce by the Society and was based on surveys of practicing physicians, teaching and community hospitals, residency and fellowship program directors, and patients throughout the state.

The 2005 study reported three specialties -- neurosurgery, anesthesiology, and radiology -- to be in “critical” shortage, and three others -- gastroenterology, cardiology, and orthopedics -- in “severe” shortage. The conclusions on shortages were drawn from an analysis of all four workforce studies over the last four years. The studies examined 14 specialties (the remaining specialties: obstetrics-gynecology, general surgery, vascular surgery, emergency medicine, psychiatry, pediatrics, family practice, internal medicine), all considered to be, in labor market terms, “under stress.”

The Society said the shortages are widespread across the state and are especially acute at community hospitals: 62 percent of physician practices, 60 percent of teaching hospitals, and 87 percent of community hospitals say they are finding it hard to fill vacancies.

One of the principal causes of the shortages continues to be the unusually large number of residents and fellows who leave the state after completion of their training. For 2003-2004, 46 percent of residents and 60 percent of fellows left the state after training. That translates, just for residents, to a migration of more than 2,100 physicians for that academic year.

For each of the last six (6) academic years, in fact, at least 46 percent of residents and 51 percent of fellows have left Massachusetts.

Massachusetts Medical Society President Alan M. Harvey, M.D., M.B.A., said one of the most striking findings of the study is the how these conditions are impacting access to health care. In a survey of citizens by Opinion Dynamics Corporation, done as part of the workforce study, 15 percent of citizens -- up from 9 percent in 2004 and 7 percent in 2003 -- now say getting health care for themselves and their families is “extremely difficult.” The top two obstacles among those respondents were high costs and the inability to find a doctor or get an appointment. Also, the study found that lower-income and less-educated citizens were the most likely to have difficulty with access.

“When the number of citizens who say getting health care is extremely difficult more than doubles in just two years,” he said, “you know you have a system going in the wrong direction and in need of reform.” The importance of health care access is also increasing among Massachusetts residents: 73 percent rank access as “extremely important,” a rise of 9 percent from the 2004 study.