report<\/a>, from the University at Albany\u2019s Center for Health Workforce Studies, finds persistent gaps in primary care across much of New York. Program manager Nafin Harun said nearly 5 million people live in federally designated primary care shortage areas.<\/p>\n\u201cWe need just above 1,000 providers to close those shortages,\u201d Harun said, adding that figure is a floor, not a ceiling, for what\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n
For patients like Justine Morris, the impact is personal. Morris said not having a primary care provider allowed a misdiagnosis to linger.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know I had cancer for the last seven months. I just found out they didn\u2019t send me the correct report,\u201d Morris said.<\/p>\n
She eventually followed up with her medical office and learned the truth. She said she understands how the system failed her.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not the fault of the doctors. They\u2019re under so much stress, and they have so many patients that sometimes things do slip through the cracks,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Morris is now in remission and has a primary care physician whom she credits with coordinating her care.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have an amazing doctor team. I think I have like 13 different doctors, surgeons, oncologists, cardiologists, neurologists,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The workforce report says burnout and demographics are adding to the problem. Senior program manager Dr. Robert Martiniano pointed to retirements and difficulty replacing experienced physicians.<\/p>\n
\u201cRetirement is an issue. Physicians are getting older, and they\u2019re retiring, and we\u2019re not able to replace them,\u201d Martiniano said.<\/p>\n
Primary care doctors say they see the strain firsthand, both in their schedules and in how people use the health system.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really had difficult caretaking and a tough time with patients in my prior practices, taking the time with them, getting to know them, making sure that they were educated on their diagnosis,\u201d said Dr. Marissa Fusella, a family physician who previously worked in a larger system.<\/p>\n
Fusella said the pressures she saw pushed her to start her own practice, hoping to address patients\u2019 needs more directly.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt allowed me to be accessible to patients, take my time with them, educate them, really talk about diet, exercise, nutrition, and not just medications and diagnosis,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Fusella said she believes more physicians may look at independent or smaller practice models as a way to spend more time with patients and focus on preventive care.<\/p>\n
State health officials say they are working on long\u2011term solutions, including expanding training programs and trying to recruit more providers to underserved areas, but the report suggests patients and providers will be navigating shortages for some time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new report on New York\u2019s healthcare workforce says the state still doesn\u2019t have enough primary care providers,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[206,15248,2953,9,11,10,49,51,50,12,200],"class_list":["post-314808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-albany-capital-region","tag-corey-james","tag-health","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-news","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}