The American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) has released the AAMC Report on Physician Shortage, its annual report on workforce shortages for health care across the nation. This year’s report projects a primary care physician shortage of 21,100 to 55,200 physicians by 2032. The shortfall range reflects the projected rapid growth in the supply of advance practice RNs and physician assistants and their role in care delivery, trends that might strengthen the nation’s primary care foundation and improve access to preventive care. The projection is based on an estimate by the Health Resources and Services Administration that nearly 14,472 primary care physicians are needed to remove the primary care shortage designation from all currently designated shortage areas. Causes of the shortfall include increasing demand from an aging population, expected retirements of many aging physicians, shorter work hours demanded by today’s physician workforce, and the growth in demand from striving to meet population health goals.
