Statistics show no shortage of doctors in 4 Western states

The number of physicians practicing in Colorado, Nevada, Oregon and Washington is on target with doctor-to-population ratios.

By Myrle Croasdale, AMNews staff. Aug. 5, 2002.

A tally of physicians in Colorado, Nevada, Oregon and Washington shows that their numbers are keeping up with overall population growth, according to Lakewood, Colo.-based Peregrine Management Corp.

That analysis runs counter to highly publicized forecasts of a physician shortage that will only exacerbate as baby boomers age.

"Here's what we've seen," said John Pike, president of Peregrine. "The physician numbers are adequate. They're not really going down when looking at retirement, death, moving out of state and sabbaticals. They're right where they need to be ... but they're not going up."

Counting heads, however, is just one aspect of measuring access to physicians, Pike said.

"The numbers are not telling us that there's a decrease going on, but something is," he said. "I'm guessing there's less access to doctors based on physician hours and the number of open and closed practices."

Pike is in the process of gathering such statistics on physician accessibility, and while statewide numbers look fine, there's no disputing that there are pockets where the physician-to-population ratio is off.

Of the four states Peregrine tracks, only a breakdown of Colorado's statistics has been completed. In Colorado, Peregrine said, there are 8,773 practicing physicians, with 37% of them 50 or older. Roughly 80% of this group is considering retiring from full-time clinical practice in the next five years. [...]