Physician recruiting firm says urologist shortage will worsen in next decade.
Alpharetta, Ga. (PRWEB) July 17, 2007 -- Reacting to healthcare facility demand, LocumTenens.com has added urology to the list of surgical subspecialties staffed by the firm’s Surgery Division. (To see available jobs, go to http://www.locumtenens.com/urology.)
“Physician recruiting industry data indicates that urologists are 12th on the list of specialists in greatest demand across the United States today, and that demand increased by almost 20 percent between 2005 and 2006,” LocumTenens.com Vice President Will Drescher said. “We’re increasingly receiving requests from clients who need to fill urology jobs.”
Driving demand is an age-60-plus population that will have quadrupled in the decade concluding with 2010, according to the 2000 U.S. Census. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that today there are more than 37 million people age 65 and over, and that number is expected to almost double--rising to more than 70 million—by 2030.
‘Boomer’ Urologists to Leave Gap
“There’s a lot of talk today about the impact aging baby boomers will have on demand for medical care,” Drescher said. “In fact, the majority of physicians in practice today are baby boomers, as well, and the pipeline of urologists isn’t filling up as quickly as it’s emptying.”
Drescher highlighted American Medical Association data indicating that 67 percent of practicing urologists are age 45 or older, while 42 percent are age 55 or older. “The urologist shortage will become more acute as baby-boomer physicians retire over the next decade,” he said. A 2003 study published in the Annals of Surgery predicted a 47-percent increase in surgery volume by 2020.
Today more than 10,000 U.S. urologists comprise only about one percent of the U.S. physician population involved in patient care. If statistics from 2005 are any indication, their ranks are increasing by only about one percent per year. While 239 residents or fellows completed training in urology in 2005, only 109 went into practice across the United States.
VA Urologists Stay Busy
Looking at the Veterans Health Administration system as a microcosm, urinary tract infection was the 6th-most-common discharge diagnosis for all patients admitted to Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals in fiscal year (FY) 2005, with 8,758 total diagnoses. Acute renal failure was the 13th-most-common diagnosis, with 5,678 total diagnoses. VA hospitals performed more than 4,700 prostate surgeries in FY 2005.
Among almost 10,000 physicians employed full-time by the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) in FY 2005, only 113 were urologists. The VHA also employed 119 part-time urologists in FY 2005.
Founded in 1995, LocumTenens.com is a full-service physician/CRNA recruiting firm specializing in anesthesiology jobs, cardiology jobs, psychiatry jobs, radiology jobs, surgery jobs and CRNA jobs with U.S. hospitals, medical groups and community health centers. LocumTenens.com is part of the Jackson Healthcare Solutions family of companies. To learn more, visit http://www.locumtenens.com/welcome.
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