According to the report of Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), by 2030, the USA will face a huge shortage of 40,800-1,04,000 physicians. If anything like this actually takes place, it will become a nightmare for both the US patients and healthcare marketers.
Marketers have to make their foundation strong before starting with their campaigns- proper identification of target audience is definitely one way to do that. Well, healthcare marketers always have the option to purchase doctors email database from an authentic vendor and keep the campaigns focused based on that. But what makes a smart marketer "better" is, having an in-depth understanding of the targeted market.
If numbers are telling the truth, the US healthcare industry is going to face some serious challenges in near future. A smart marketer should, therefore, have an in and out knowledge of this situation before starting with their marketing projects. Let’s take a look at 4 major factors related to the complication of the physician shortage in the US.
 |
| Doctors Email List |
Population Growth
With the constant advancement in medical science, the mortality rate is continuously decreasing. According to NBC News report, there has been 15% downfall of infant mortality rate in this country.
With more people are living to be older, demand for specialized physicians is simultaneously rising. As per Janis Orlowski, the Chief Healthcare Officer of AAMC, demography is one of the most important factors behind this shortage of US doctors. He has said, “the number of people over the age of 65 is expected to go up by 40-45% within the next 10 years.” Therefore, there will be a huge demand for doctors with expertise in offering treatment for diseases that mostly appear in this older and sicker population.
Supply of Physicians is Decreasing
As the fact-sheets suggest, demand for doctors and physicians is gradually rising. But the supply of physicians is not increasing at that same pace, rather the number is actually falling down.
According to OECD statistics, there are 2.56 doctors per 1000 US people- which is definitely not sufficient. Besides, every 1 in 3 practicing physicians is now over the age of 65 and close to retirement.
In order to fill the huge demand for physicians, medical schools should increase student capacity as soon as possible- which is not really happening. The average acceptance rate for medical students is now 44.5%, whereas some medical schools are accepting even less than 10% students.
This situation is taking place because of the major reduction in government funding in healthcare. According to Los Angeles Times report, the US Government is calling for almost 18% cut next year on their healthcare funding. Even National Institute of Health is going to see a huge budget cut of $5.8 billion. If the situation remains unchanged, future of the US healthcare industry is only going to get worse.
Shortage of Physicians in both General and Specialized Fields
According to Annals of Family Medicine report, by 2025, the US will need more than 52,000 primary care physicians. But the AAMC predicts, there will be a huge shortage between 12,500 and 31,000 in primary care doctors.
Cancer has now become an epidemic and the situation is only getting worse with time. By 2025, the number of cancer affected patients is going to increase almost 42%, resulting in a huge increase in demand for oncologists in the market. But again, numbers fail to bring any hope. By 2025, there would be a shortage of nearly 1,500 oncology specialists- which means, only 28% improvement on the overall number of oncology doctors.
The horror does not end here. The AAMC report also comes up with the prediction that there will be a shortage of 21,400 general surgeons in the US healthcare by 2020.
As per Geography
A large section of healthcare analysts are saying that there is actually not a “shortage” of doctors in America, the main problem lies elsewhere. As Dr. Rechard Olds, CEO of Carribbean Medical School St. George’s University said, “the real problem is we don’t have enough doctors in the right places in the right specialties.”
When the urban areas are flooded with high-profile specialize doctors and surgeons, in rural areas and other small communities of the country, there is a huge lack of primary care doctors, specialized physicians and surgeons.
Physicians in those localities are very less paid, therefore, doctors from urban areas usually avoid practicing in these localities. According to Becker’s Hospital Review, 70% of US counties do not have medical oncologists at all.
If the government doesn’t take any fast and effective action to solve this crisis, the healthcare sector in the US is going to be a tough place for the marketers to grow their business.
Still, marketers also have the option to knock the right doors by using can-spam compliant healthcare data. But they have to choose the right market vendor in order to get the highly-responsive healthcare database.
Call Toll Free 1-800 348 8535
Or Write in at: info@tophealthcareleads.com
Sources: latimes.com;washingtonpost.com;foxbusiness.com;aamc.org;marketwatch.com;nytimes.com;beckershospitalreview.com;fortune.com;cw33.com
Comments
Post a Comment