Christine Jordan Sexton
Six hospital chief executives from across the state will hold a press conference Tuesday to discuss findings of a study about the shortage of physician specialists by region in Florida during the next 10 years.
State Sen. Aaron Bean, R-Fernandina Beach, and Rep. Matt Hudson, R-Naples, will join the hospital CEOs along with the residency directors at some of the state’s largest teaching hospitals. Medical residents from All Children’s Hospital John Hopkins in St. Petersburg, Miami Children’s Hospital and Orlando Health also will be in attendance. The press conference starts at 12:30 p.m. outside Senate chambers.
The study was commissioned by the Teaching Hospital Council of Florida and the Safety Net Hospital Alliance of Florida, and conducted by IHS Global.
A 2013 Department of Health survey shows that Florida’s physician population is aging. More than 30 percent of the physicians in the state are above the age 60 and more than 85 percent are older than 40.
Graduate medical education refers to the training residents complete after graduating from medical school to develop the clinical and professional skills needed to practice medicine. Florida ranks 42nd of the 50 states in the number of GME positions per 100,000 persons with 19 resident physicians per 100,000 people.
Florida needs an additional 3,352 allopathic residency positions to meet the average national ratio of medical residents per 100,000 population, the Association of American Medical Colleges maintains.
