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PROFESSIONAL ISSUESDiscontent with practice climate transcends raceAfrican-American physicians are unhappy with medicine for the same reasons other doctors are.By Damon Adams, AMNews staff. May 24/31, 2004. The majority of African-American physicians are dissatisfied with medical practice, and they cite high liability insurance costs and low reimbursements as key reasons, according to a new survey. About three in four of the doctors surveyed said they retired in the last year or expect to retire soon. The impact on minority patients could be huge: African-American doctors make up 3% to 5% of the physician population, and two-thirds of their patients are minorities. "Across the board, we saw that physicians expressed frustration. There is potentially a major crisis," said Sharon Allison-Ottey, MD, a Lanham, Md., internist and co-investigator of the survey, published in the April Journal of the National Medical Assn. "If there is an exodus from these practices, who comes in and takes care of these patients?" The mail survey was the first conducted on African-American physicians' perceptions of the profession by the National Medical Assn., which represents 25,000 African-American physicians. Working with the Gallup Organization, the group polled 479 of its members in July 2003. One in four respondents said a "loss of joy" in medicine was a primary or major reason for making changes in practicing medicine. [...]Full text of AMNews content is available to AMA members and paid subscribers.
Copyright 2004 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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