S P E C I A L I S T vs. PCP’s or S P E C I A L I S T & P C P’S

It’s good to know that medical professionals are specializing in areas that are critical to understanding chronic health diseases/conditions. However, if there are too many specialists then this will result in a shortcoming of primary care physicians in the near future. Many medical students have not been in the workforce for approximately eight years and are eager to make a buck. However, when they see the difficulty in navigating the medical system (such as ordering labs, medications, etc.) and weight the compensation they will receive the alternative is more glamorous so they choose to continue their path towards specialization. As a specialist, they have more freedom to order tests in order to determine the underlying causes of illness. Now, if we have a short supply of PCP’s then what should we do? First off, I think it is wrong to import physicians from other countries that need their own physicians to help with spread of infectious diseases and other terminal illness endemic to their countries. So for the U.S., I suggest that specialist be required to provide at least a given amount of hours during the month to the PCP field so that we don’t end up with a deficit of PCP’s. The medical field is a collective and I see nothing wrong with a specialist helping a fellow PCP to serve the American population which is their work base. Let’s distribute the work load so we as a nation can strive towards quality improvement in our health care system one step at a time.