Primary Care

RI's Latest Health Care Merger: Good for You and Your Bottom Line?

Kristin Gourlay — Tue, 21 May 2013 19:24:22 +0000

The Lifespan hospital system’s recent acquisition of Gateway, a mental health care network, may be a sign of more to come. But it could be too soon to tell what it means for a patient’s pocketbook.

New Med School at Quinnipiac Focused on Primary Care

Kristin Gourlay — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 20:55:16 +0000

This fall the new medical school at Connecticut's Quinnipiac University welcomes its first class of incoming students. And the school is apparently focused on turning out a particular kind of doctor. From their web site:

Debrief: Can We Afford Fewer Hospital Beds?

Kristin Gourlay and Elisabeth Harrison — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 10:00:00 +0000

How many hospital beds does Rhode Island really need?

That’s one question being considered in a new report from a state health care planning council. It comes at a time when a number of hospitals in the state are either up for sale, looking at new partnerships or struggling financially.

Rhode Island Public Radio’s health care reporter Kristin Gourlay joined Elisabeth Harrison in the studio to talk about the health of the state’s hospitals and some of the surprising findings from this report.

Friday is 'Match Day' for the Nation's Future Doctors

Kristin Gourlay — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 15:30:38 +0000

This Friday at 1:00 pm EDT, more than 17,000 U.S. medical school seniors and another 16,000 other applicants (internationals, etc.) find out where they'll train as residents for the next several years of their lives.

Brown to offer new primary care MD program

Kristin Gourlay — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 19:18:06 +0000

Brown University's medical school plans to launch a new program for medical students who want to focus on primary care. The program also aims to boost the number of primary care doctors in Rhode Island.

More Interest in Primary Care, But are Medical Schools Ready?

Kristin Gourlay — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 19:05:44 +0000

Interesting story from the American Medical Association’s news wire today about the growing number of medical students who are opting to pursue careers in family medicine. Students matched with family medicine residencies are up 14%this year from 2008, the writer reports (based on information from the national residency matching program).

Can Future Docs Afford to Go Into Primary Care?

Kristin Gourlay — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 17:00:00 +0000

Researchers writing in Academic Medicine, the journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges, think so. Or rather, after crunching the numbers – medical school debt load to potential income and expenses – they think medical students who decide to go into primary care as a specialty will be able to pay off their school debt on a primary care doctor’s salary.

But…

By 2025, 25% more primary care docs needed

Kristin Gourlay — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 16:04:03 +0000

A new study in the Annals of Family Medicine projects the country will need about 52,000 more primary care doctors by 2025. The study’s authors calculated that we currently have about 206,000.They based their projections on the number of patients primary care docs currently see in office visits per year, and how many might be expected based on how much our population is set to grow, how much more an aging population will need primary care, and how many people will have access to a primary care doctor for the first time as a result of the Affordable Care Act.

Tough to get a doctor’s appointment?

Kristin Gourlay — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Being new in town, I needed to find a primary care doctor for my daughter, who is almost 11 years old. I used my health insurance’s web site to find a list of providers. Every one I called said they weren’t taking new patients. I called pediatric specialists, family doctors. I called offices close to home, an hour away, and everywhere in between…to no avail.

Finally I found a walk-in clinic about an hour away that could at least update her immunizations and sign some paperwork for the new school she’ll attend at the end of August.