There is a dearth of qualified healthcare professionals in the Coachella Valley, particularly in the areas of Pediatrics, Geriatrics, Psychiatry, and HIV/AIDS.
The Desert Healthcare District needs to revive a prior Desert Hospital program which fostered the relocation to the Valley of qualified healthcare professionals. A Medical Manpower Task Force is needed to recruit and retain critical healthcare staff: physicians, nurses, and nursing assistants.
A recent article in the Desert Sun highlighted the serious lack of pediatricians in the Valley necessary to care for our children. Jeff Donaldson, in his article, notes that at least 10,000 of teh State's 34,000 physicians were planning to leavae the State, retire early or change professions. Fewer new doctors are expected to come into the system in the next five years.
Dr. William Grimm, president-elect of the Riverside County Medical Association, cited the number one reason doctors are getting out is because reimbursement is down and they can't afford to stay in business. The HMO's are telling them how to practice medicine.
Most new doctors are migrating to large metropolitan areas after graduating because they don't have the money to set up a private practice with $110,000 in student loans to repay. They see large cities as the best chance. I can empathize with them, since I graduated from New York Medical College and I am just now finishing up paying for my student loans. That's why I chose to go into Administration with my Masters in Public Health, rather than become an M.D. The District could partner with local hospitals to sponsor the two-year residencies of new medical school graduates in the critical areas of pediatrics, geriatrics, gero-psychiatry and infectious disease/HIV. This sponsorship would be an incentive for the individual completing that residency to stay here in the Valley and open a practice.
There is also an initiative at the State level to work with Mexican doctors and dentists to come to struggling areas. With the large Hispanic population in the Valley, this would be an excellent opportunity for the District to channel funds to flow to the care of a fast growing segment of our population.
With the huge older population, there are few geriatric medicine specialists to provide the special care that this group requires. There are limited psychiatric services available in the Valley and often patients are sent all the way to Los Angeles County facilities in order to be treated. The Valley needs its own full-service psychiatric facility, and in particular one which addresses gero-psychiatric needs. And with the number of residents with HIV/AIDS, there is a dearth of physicians in the Valley with the specialized knowledge to provide state-of-the-art treatment. Patients choices are limited to a few doctors whose practices are so large that there are inordinate waits to get appointments and lengthly waiting room times even to see a physician.
Some have remarked that going to the doctor in the Coachella Valley is like going to a physician in a Third World country. This problem must be addressed, especially in light of the fact that the population of the Coachella Valley is expected to grow to 1 million in the next 10 years.
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