OPINION: Bold and collaborative approaches are needed to solve Idaho’s physician shortage
Idahoans are increasingly aware that Idaho ranks last in the nation in physicians per capita, and that our acute and growing shortage of physicians and limited access to medical care leads to sicker and less healthy populations. Today, 43 of 44 Idaho counties are designated health professions shortage areas.
In 1972 the state of Idaho entered into a medical education partnership with the University of Washington School of Medicine. In more recent years, a similar partnership was established with the University of Utah. Combined, the Washington and Utah medical education programs educate 50 newly matriculated Idahoans per year.
Over the past several decades, hundreds of academically qualified Idahoans pursued their medical education and residency training out-of-state due to limited state-supported medical school seats and in state residency programs. Once they leave the state for these purposes, the probability of these student doctor-resident-physicians returning to Idaho is greatly reduced.
In 2016, the Idaho College of Osteopathic Medicine was established in Meridian in partnership with Idaho State University. The college became fully accredited in 2022, and since its inception has matriculated 1,134 student-doctors, graduated 439 doctors and placed 99.6 percent of those graduates into Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education accredited residency programs here in Idaho and across the country.
While Idaho ranks 50th in the nation in active physicians per capita, our state also ranks 47th in “resident” physicians and 45th in total physicians who practice primary care. And while Idaho remains one of the fastest growing states in the nation, roughly one-third of our physician workforce are aged 60 or over and expected to retire in the coming years. Of special concern — and for a combination of reasons — roughly 25 percent of our OB-GYN physicians, and 4 of 9 (42 percent) Idaho perinatologists (experts in high-risk pregnancies) have retired or left Idaho since 2022.
Today there is not a hospital, health system nor community in Idaho that is not actively and urgently seeking to recruit one or many physicians. Remarkably, Idaho would need an infusion of roughly 1,400 primary and specialty care physicians and surgeons just to reach the national average of physicians per capita. Incidentally, the average economic impact of a single Idaho physician is roughly $2 million per year. Indeed, Idaho’s medical and health care providers have and always will be central not only to the good health and welfare — but also to the economic well-being of our communities.
The ICOM board and leadership team maintain that Idaho needs an “all-hands-on-deck” approach to both undergraduate (medical school) and post-graduate (residency) medical education. We believe the state needs both allopathic (MD) and osteopathic (DO) medical education providers, and that all players in this space must work together in a collaborative, collegial and professional way to address the acute and growing shortage of physicians locally and beyond.
I warmly commend the governor, our Legislature and the State Board of Education for prioritizing not only the funding, but also the planning needed to orchestrate an urgent, bolder and more balanced approach to preparing future generations of Idaho physicians.
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Dr. Tracy J. Farnsworth was appointed president of the Idaho College of Osteopathic Medicine at Idaho State University in 2016. He is also a professor of Healthcare Management at ISU where he led efforts to establish Idaho’s first and only master's in Healthcare Administration program in 2018. Prior to his work at the University, Farnsworth served in various executive level positions with Intermountain Healthcare, Catholic Healthcare West, and the City of Hope National Medical Center.