Community Impact reports that according to data from April of 2024 from the Texas Department of State Health Services, by the year 2036 the demand that is not met for primary care physicians in the Gulf Coast public health region, including Montgomery County, is forecast to hit 39 percent.
Opening in 2020, in Conroe, Sam Houston State University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine is moving forward in an effort to address the physician shortage. Their first class graduated in May.
The school’s Dean, Thomas Mohr, said, “There is a shortage of primary care physicians, especially in our rural and underserved communities.
The first 69 student graduating class from the college in May included 62 Percent of graduates to pursue primary care specialties, with 58 percent to continue to reside in Texas. Mohr said these percentages demonstrate “the ‘why’ of what we’re talking about.”
Looking at the state as a whole, there will be 21,815 doctors in 2036, with a need for 37,919.
According to a March 2024 Association of American Medical Colleges report, the shortage of primary care physicians nationwide will be between 20,000 to 40,400 by 2036.
Association President and CEO David J. Skorton said if access to medical care is improved in regard to serving the older population “then the workforce shortages will be even larger.”
According to HCA Houston Healthcare Conroe CEO Matt Davis, they partner with Physician Services to make available nearly 40 doctors and extended providers. He said SHSU students fulfill part of their clinical rotation requirements with local doctors at HCA Houston Conroe.
SHSU’s College of Osteopathic Medicine’s school dean, Mohr, says their students participate in a family medicine residency program with Huntsville Memorial Hospital.
He said students have moved to places like Nacogdoches, Lufkin, Beaumont and Texarkana. In their third and fourth year, they are trained “back in those communities.”
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