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Don't forget CEO input in the MD and nursing supply debate

Hospitalist Leadership Connection, June 6, 2007

When it comes to physician supply, healthcare policy analysts and academics are divided into two camps. One camp believes that the U.S. has a sufficient number of physicians to meet its needs. The other believes more physicians must be trained. Experts' opinions on the topic are important because the analyses and opinions they generate affect government policy.

For example, the proposed 2008 federal budget cites the sufficient amount of physicians as a reason for reducing government funding of medical residency programs through Medicaid. Budget planners apparently are in the first camp referenced above. Curiously, the proposed 2008 budget also calls for cuts in funding for nurse training, even though healthcare experts are virtually unanimous in agreeing that the U.S. is in the midst of a serious nurse shortage.

Analysts and academics have various ways of determining the national need for physicians and nurses, many of them driven by formulas and statistics. What these formulas sometimes omit, however, is input from hospital administrators who are responsible for ensuring that their facilities have enough doctors and nurses to meet patients' needs.

The Council on Physician and Nurse Supply, an independent group of healthcare leaders that tracks physician and nurse manpower trends, wanted to learn what hospital executives think about the current supply of doctors and nurses. On behalf of the Council, AMN Healthcare surveyed over 400 CEOs at hospitals located nationwide. What they said paints a clear picture of where hospital leaders stand on the state of physician and nurse supply.

Access the remainder of this article in HealthLeaders News, at www.healthleadersmedia.com/view_feature.cfm?content_id=89720.

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