Indiana Primary Care Clinician 2012 Workforce Report

Abstract

Primary care clinicians are a critical segment of the health care workforce in Indiana. The Institute of Medicine defined primary care as “the provision of integrated, accessible health care services by clinicians who are accountable for addressing a large majority of personal health care needs, developing a sustained partnership with patients, and practicing in the context of family and community.” 1 For this report, a physician was considered a “primary care physician” if their specialty was one of the following: family medicine, general internal medicine, general practice, internal medicine – pediatrics, and general pediatrics. In addition to these physician specialties, physician assistants and nurse practitioners who also provide primary care and are included in this report as part of the group considered to be primary care clinicians. The purpose of this report is to describe the current state of the primary care clinician workforce in Indiana, their demographic characteristics, practice setting, and geographical locations. The geographical locations are presented in different ways for the various stakeholders. The information presented in this report may be useful for projecting future needs given the current number of providers and proportion nearing retirement as well as the geographical areas where special attention may be needed to insure residents have adequate access to primary care clinicians in the future.