An Assessment of Obstetricians/Gynecologists in Indiana

Abstract

After physicians’ license renewal period (the most recent occurring in 2017), the Bowen Center for Health Workforce Research and Policy collects their license and survey data from the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency (IPLA) for cleaning, coding and storage in a longitudinal database. After processing these data, the Bowen Center then conducts additional data collection on every physician in Indiana who is actively practicing in order to verify their specialty, practice address, hours in patient care and patient panel characteristics (such as % of patient covered by Medicaid and % of patients on a sliding fee scale). This verification process helps to ensure that the provider data used to inform Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) designations accurately reflect the capacity of primary care physicians and psychologists practicing in Indiana. Obstetrician/Gynecologists (OB/GYN) are included as part of the primary care workforce and were verified through this process. The accompanying GIS map utilizes this verified data to display the capacity of these physicians and their geographic distribution in the State of Indiana.