Rural Areas Brace for a Shortage of Doctors Due to Visa Policy

[riversedge]

I see many foreign born doctors in Mid Wisconsin. All good doctors, dedicated and care for their patients. I volunteer to take some people who no longer drive to appointments a day or two each week. I feel the tension in the clinics.




Rural Areas Brace for a Shortage of Doctors Due to Visa Policy

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/18/us/doctor-shortage-visa-policy.html


By MIRIAM JORDAN


MARCH 18, 2017




Photo
Dr. Silviana Marineci, a Romanian completing a fellowship at the University of Minnesota, said a change to the H-1B application policy had left her in limbo. “I won’t have an income,” she said. “I don’t know if I will afford rent. I don’t know where I will be.” Credit Jenn Ackerman for The New York Times





In Coudersport, Pa., a town in a mountainous region an hour’s drive from the nearest Walmart, Cole Memorial Hospital counts on two Jordanian physicians to keep its obstetrics unit open and is actively recruiting foreign specialists.

In Fargo, N.D., a gastroenterologist from Lebanon — who is among thousands of foreign physicians in the state — has risen to become vice president of the North Dakota Medical Association.

In Great Falls, Mont., 60 percent of the doctors who specialize in hospital care at Benefis Health System, which serves about 230,000 people in 15 counties, are foreign doctors on work visas.

Small-town America relies on a steady flow of doctors from around the world to deliver babies, treat heart ailments and address its residents’ medical needs. But a recent, little-publicized decision by the government to alter the timetable for some visa applications is likely to delay the arrival of new foreign doctors, and is causing concern in the places that depend on them.



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About 25 percent of all physicians practicing or training in the United States are foreign, but in some inner cities and most rural areas, that share is significantly higher..........................................

[underpants]

1. It's like no one thought this out

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Our rural hospital has an oncology center ( yayyy)

and one of the docs in Jordanian.

Our rural Health center, like others across the country, which serves medicaid and other poor patients, has been staffed for years by a Gov. program which lets foreign docs work here for a year.
Even tho I had insurance, and money, some years ago I chose to see the woman doc. there, who was from India.
She was excellent. and the fee was very affordable.

Our Mental Health Centers had rotating psychiatrists, ( actually several of the MH centers I worked in did) who were all from India. They were extremely competent and professional, I was greatly impressed.

When he applied for Soc. Sec. disability, Mr. Dixie had to see a Soc.Sec. provided doctor in the next rural county. That doctor was from Iraq. and he was very experienced with teh type of physical injury
Mr. Dixie had, which most american docs around here are not. ( I am not going to provide any detail, in order to respect Mr. Dixie's privacy, but pls. know it was such good fortune he saw this knowledgeable doc). Mr. Dixie got his disability with no problem.

Rural areas will be devastated without these opportunities. We live 4-5 hours drive from any city, takes almost the whole day to drive there, see a doc and drive home. The Southern states, including Tenn, are mostly rural, health care is difficult enough to access for many people.