Study: Los Angeles Is in Desperate Need of More Doctors

Los Angeles is desperately in need of doctors, according to a study released today.

According to the website BetterDoctor, Los Angeles is third among the top 25 cities that don’t have enough physicians to treat their residents.

The other top five cities in need of doctors are New York City and San Antonio, Texas atop the list and Greensboro, North Carolina and Jacksonville, Florida, directly behind Los Angeles.

Los Angeles has 3,062 residents per primary care doctor, the website found, about twice as many potential patients for each doctor as San Francisco’s 1,466 residents per physician.

The website -- using Census data against the number of primary care doctors in each city -- named San Diego the 25th most doctor-abundant city in the country, with one doctor per 1,289 residents.

For the study, BetterDoctor focused on primary care doctors because as the first doctors sought when illness strikes, they are in the highest demand and shortest supply.

Primary care doctors are defined as either family practitioners, general practitioners, internists or pediatricians.

According to Association of American Medical Colleges estimates, the United States is facing a shortage of over 130,000 doctors by 2025.

In October 2013, a CNN report warned that doctor shortages and increased demand could crash the entire health care system.

The increase of millions of new patients into the healthcare system -- an estimated 13 million Americans have become newly insured since the first of this year -- and the aging population put many cities at risk for severe doctor shortages, according to BetterDoctor.

BetterDoctor.com is a free consumer healthcare tool that allows users to search for doctors of all types according to various indicators such as appointment availability and insurance plans accepted.

--City News Service

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