The newly-formed Ohio Primary Care Physicians Workforce Collaborative held its inaugural meeting on February 1. Ohio Academy of Family Physiians President Don Mack, MD represented the OAFP at the meeting as did family physicians Doug Harley, DO, representing the Ohio Osteopathic Association and Ted Wymyslo, MD representing the Ohio Association of Community Health Centers. The Ohio chapters of the American College of Physicians and the American Academy of Pediatrics also participated as did the deans at Boonshoft College of Medicine at Wright State University and the Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine.
This group was borne out of conversation held during the Ohio Coalition of Primary Care Physicians relative to making another effort at developing a mechanism to incentivize medical schools to produce more primary care physicians. The group is also looking at state evidence-based programs that have successfully distributed additional primary care physicians to serve medically underserved areas of states.
Heather Reed, of the Ohio Colleges of Medicine Government Resource Center Heather, reviewed the Ohio Health Professions Data Warehouse information which showed where physicians graduated, where they did their residency program, and where they are practicing, including if it is an underserved area (FQHC, HPSA, or medically underserved areas), and the volume of Medicaid patients.
Pat Ecklar, MD, reviewed Ohio match data. NEOMED and Ohio University are the only medical schools that have over half of their graduates staying in Ohio. While internal medicine, med peds, and pediatrics are counted as primary care, it is estimated that about 80% of IM graduates subspecialize and two-thirds of pediatrics graduates subspecialize. He showed match figures adjusted for those estimates.
The discussion turned to developing a comprehensive plan to change the graduate medical education process to get a different result than what we are getting now. Next steps will include clarifying a vision and collecting information on state initiatives that improved primary care physician production and distribution to areas of need. The collaborative plans to meet again in one month.