No More Lip Service; It’s Time We Fixed Primary Care (Part Two)

Despite at least two decades of rhetoric about the need to build a robust primary care infrastructure, the US health care system continues to limp along with the smallest ratio of primary care providers to specialists of any high-income country; a shortage of primary care providers, especially in rural areas; low numbers of medical students entering primary care residencies; and epidemic rates of burnout in the profession. In Part One of this post, we made the case for training more primary care providers (including physician assistants and nurse practitioners as well as physicians), and implementing policies that would help primary care practices do a better job of caring for their patients, especially those with chronic illnesses.