While no quick fix exists for the challenge of replacing aging doctors in Northeast Pennsylvania, the Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education has plans to bring more doctors completing medical residencies in coming years, hoping some will stay long-term.
Starting in July, the graduate medical education center will expand residency programs to add 26 physicians completing family practice residencies in Scranton, Wilkes-Barre and surrounding areas. Currently, 21 physicians train in residencies in family medicine in Wilkes-Barre.
The effort helps with two challenges - more doctors reaching retirement age and an anticipation of more patients seeking health care related to the Affordable Care Act. Much of Pennsylvania experiences doctor shortages or anticipates them.
"Our goal is to create physicians who want to practice in those underserved areas," said Brian Ebersole, education and community relevance leader at the Wright Center. "Our hope is in the first year or two, when the first round is graduating, that they may serve as renewal for Scranton Primary (Health Care Center)."
This comes after the Scranton-based center has already expanded its internal medicine residencies, in which doctors focus on specific diseases and systems in the body.
The Wright Center will have 68 internal medicine residents in 2013 in the region. In 2011, the Wright Center received "Teaching Health Center" designation from the Health Resources and Services Administration, a branch of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. With the designation, the center can help train more residents in family medicine and internal medicine.
Both family practice and internal medicine residencies take three years.
Linda Thomas-Hemak, M.D., president and CEO of the Wright Center, said medical residents training in Northeast Pennsylvania may decide to stay in the communities where they train.
"This will have a major impact on communities as they need strong health care," she said.
Among a few dozen institutions nationwide to receive teaching health center designation, the Wright Center's goal with this program is to prepare more doctors to practice in areas with shortages.
Nationwide, primary care doctors have some of the largest shortages among medical specialties because larger numbers of doctors choose to specialize in more lucrative specialty areas. Organizations including the Washington, D.C.-based Association of American Medical Colleges have called for more federal funding of medical residencies.
Of Pennsylvania's 67 counties, 17 have current or anticipated doctor shortages. About one in four doctors in the state are 60 or older, data from the Pennsylvania Medical Society show.
Statewide, the ratio of primary care doctors to patients is 838 to 1, according to 2009 data compiled by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Population Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin. However, Susquehanna and Wayne county ratios are 2,726 to 1 and 1,386 to 1, respectively. Nearly all counties in the region have higher primary care physician-to-patient ratios compared to the rest of the state. Lackawanna County's ratio is 1,084 to 1.
As the doctors in the area age, the entire state expects to see an increase in patients. If Pennsylvania decides to expand its Medicaid program in 2014 through the Affordable Care Act, some estimates have it adding about 600,000 people to insurance rolls.
Contact the writer: rward@timesshamrock.com, @rwardTT on Twitter