Is Idaho the Riskiest Place in America to Get Sick?

July 06 -It's official: Idaho is the riskiest place in America to get sick. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Gem State has the lowest number of active physicians per 10,000 population in America.

So if you have a doctor, hang on to him or her for dear life. According to the American Medical Association, 40 percent of Idaho physicians are 55 or older and 21 percent are past retirement age. The Gem State has the sixth-oldest doctor workforce in America.

And because of what are likely to be long-term decreases in the amount compensation the federal government pays for Medicare patients, that number is likely to slide further, dramatically and soon.

This is an acute medical emergency, and one that's gone largely unrecognized by most legislators and Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter.

State Rep. Fred Wood, R-Burley, is an exception.

Wood, a retired emergency room physician, opposes the creation of a stand-alone medical school at Idaho State University because it would cost too much, but he understands the absolute necessity to get doctors into small towns.

Idaho is sending physicians-to-be through the WWAMI Program -- a multi-state medical education enterprise at the University of Washington -- and has bought several seats at the University of Utah Medical School. But depending on whose estimates you believe, that's about half as many med school students committed to Idaho as we need.

We must - must - find a way to create more medical residencies in Idaho, because doctors tend to practice in areas where they do their residencies.

There are rural Idaho communities - including several in the Magic Valley - just one physician retirement away from a full-blown medical emergency.

We're grateful for folks like North Canyon Medical Center Director Earl Fitzpatrick of Gooding who understand the incontestable necessity of recruiting and keeping doctors. But Fitzpatrick is the exception.

So here's a suggestion for Otter if he's reelected in November: Put Wood and Fitzpatrick at the head of a governor's blue-ribbon task force on rural health care.

And take their suggestions like lives depended on them - because they do.

Our physician shortage in rural Idaho has already cost us the lives of many of our fellow citizens, and it's only going to get worse.

There is no higher priority in this state right now than making sure residents of the 38 of 44 counties classified as rural can actually see a doctor.

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Copyright (c) 2010, The Times-News, Twin Falls, Idaho

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