Calling all orthopedic surgeons, pediatric specialists, obstetricians and psychiatrists: Hawaii Island needs you.
Calling all orthopedic surgeons, pediatric specialists, obstetricians and psychiatrists: Hawaii Island needs you.
Those specialties and more have been identified as pressing needs on the Big Island, according to the latest assessment of the state’s physician workforce.
Prepared by the Hawaii Physician Workforce Assessment Project through the University of Hawaii’s Area Health Education Centers, the annual report assesses the supply and demand for doctors on each island.
The latest data show Hawaii actually gained four physicians in 2015, bringing the state total to 2,806. That’s unusual because the last few years the state has typically lost physicians each year, largely because of doctors reaching retirement age.
However, as the population in Hawaii grows, demand for doctors increases by about 50 each year, so “this actually represents an expanding shortage of physician supply versus demand,” reads the December report prepared by Kelley Withy, the primary investigator with the Hawaii Physician Workforce Assessment Project.
The demand for doctors statewide stands at 3,310, meaning Hawaii currently has 20 percent fewer physicians than it needs.
But on the Big Island, the shortage is even more pronounced. Estimates put Hawaii Island residents’ needs at 286 specialists, but currently only 137 are available. That represents a shortage of more than 52 percent.
Looked at as a percentage of the demand, some of the island’s most badly needed physicians include those in pediatric specialties including cardiology, gastroenterology, neurology and rheumatology. There are no doctors with those specialties currently working on the island, while just under three are estimated to be needed.
Orthopedic surgery also is sorely underrepresented. The demand on Hawaii Island currently stands at 14.6 doctors, with only 4.2 working here.
Other needs not currently being met include colorectal surgery, neonatal-perinatal, neurological surgery, plastic surgery, infectious disease, allergy and immunology, and more.
Dealing with such shortages will become increasingly more important as time goes on, Withy says, with 711 doctors across the state aged 65 or older.
More than any other state in the country, Hawaii relies on undergraduate and graduate medical education programs, such as Hawaii Island’s Family Medicine Residency, to fill its demand for doctors. In 2012, 86 percent of Hawaii’s physicians were retained as a result of such programs, according to the American Medical Association.
Withy’s report says that demand for physicians in Hawaii grows by about 50 positions each year, while the state loses an average of 50 physicians each year. That means about 100 physicians must be added to Hawaii’s workforce each year in order to grow to meet the public’s needs.
For the state to produce such quantities, the number of medical school students in the state would have to double or even triple, while the number of physicians participating in residency programs would have to double, Withy writes in the assessment. Currently, Hawaii graduates between 70 and 80 medical students each year, as well as 95 medical residents.
Hawaii Island’s residency program currently is in its second year of operation, after more than a decade of efforts to find funding and support. Organizers say they hope the program will go a long way toward addressing the doctor shortage.
Email Colin M. Stewart at cstewart@hawaiitribune-herald.com.