Thursday, Jan. 9, 2014 | 2 a.m.
The chronic shortage of doctors that afflicts Nevadans may grow worse, lawmakers were warned Wednesday.
A group of health care experts reviewed the state's longstanding deficiency in providing an adequate health care workforce for Nevada's residents at a legislative committee, providing fresh data showing that Nevada still ranks poorly among states for the number of doctors and nurses it counts among its population.
That shortage of doctors, nurses and other health care professionals isn't going away anytime soon, experts say. Instead, it could actually be getting worse.
The advent of President Barack Obama's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act both mandates and provides subsidies for people to get health insurance, and with hundreds of thousands of Nevadans predicted to get insurance, there's even more pressure on the health care system to have enough professionals to see patients like you.
How bad is the problem?
For one, the health care workforce isn’t growing. And health care workers are getting older and closer to retirement, according to experts who delivered presentations to the legislative health care committee.
“We’re just treading water,” said Gerald Ackerman with the University of Nevada School of Medicine. “There are severe health workforce shortages.”
These are longstanding problems.
How longstanding?
Another set of legislators examined the shortage of nurses in Nevada — in 1989.
Here’s where Nevada’s health care workforce ranks compared with other states on the basis of the number of physicians per 100,000 state residents. Washington, D.C., is included in the rankings.
General and family practitioners: 46th
Pediatricians: 46th
Psychiatrists: 50th
Obstetricians and gynecologists: 40th
Ophthalmologists: 48th
Orthopedic surgeons: 51st
General surgeons: 51st
Specialty surgeons: 51st
Now here’s the same comparison data for licensed nurses:
Registered nurses: 50th
Nurse practitioners: 41st
Clinical nurse specialists: 26th
Certified nurse midwives: 44th
Certified nurse anesthetists: 51st
Licensed practical nurses: 49th
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