Curating Care

FSU/BayCare Program’s Inaugural Class of Residents Set Out on Mission

- TERESA SCHIFFER

FLORIDA AND ESPECIALLY Polk County have been experiencing a physician shortage for the past couple of decades. In fact, the entire nation is affected by a shortage of general practice physicians. Here in Florida, we have one primary care doctor for every 1,390 residents, and in Polk County, that ratio plummets to one doctor for each 2,030 residents. This crisis in care has not gone unnoticed by professionals in the industry, as every three years BayCare Health System conducts a comprehensive Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) to determine our area’s most significant health needs. Family medicine and psychiatry tend to be the two most difficult roles to adequately fill.

A growing and aging population in Florida adds increased stress on the local medical systems. Polk County has one of the fastest-growing populations in the state. Recruitment of general practitioner physicians has simply not been able to keep up with the retirement of practicing doctors in the area over the years. Many medical students opt to go into specific specialties rather than general practice. Family medicine can be a challenge because these doctors are tasked with caring for their patients over long periods of time, often serving several generations of an individual’s family. The family doctor oversees a variety of medical conditions including illnesses, injuries, births, and deaths. It takes a particularly dedicated type of physician to commit to this kind of long-term care.