It’s always about the money. The absence of a physician in Snow Hill, a doctor shortage nationally or not, is the result of a potential patient base that’s too small to allow a full-time doctor’s office or clinic to break even given the cost of health care these days.
It’s a shame, but the emergence of institutionalized health care delivery in the past two decades — hospitals are no longer just hospitals but are the hubs of larger medical networks — has made the independent practitioner all but extinct.
The cost is just too prohibitive, and the virtues many people ascribe to general practice physicians, such as selflessness and dedication to the community, come in second to their need to pay off exorbitant medical school costs and, eventually, to make a decent living.
That’s why most doctors around the country now sign up for salaried jobs with medical systems, which also happen to have the resources to handle the mountain of paperwork that’s now required, rather than try to go it alone.
The irony in this is that the rise of healthcare networks and spread of hospital satellite offices is precisely because of the need to bring better care to underserved areas. There is no argument that they have done that in Worcester County, which less than 30 years ago had only a handful of family doctors trying to meet the needs of the entire population.
Obviously, that has changed dramatically, and with that making major issues of convenience in years past into much smaller ones. Yet hospital network growth is tied to a community’s demonstrated need, which also influences each office’s ability to justify the expenditure, possibly support itself, or at least not be a major financial drag on the institution’s other health care assets.
Does Snow Hill need a doctor’s office? Given the reported small patient load and the proximity of clinics in Pocomoke, maybe not just yet.
It took more than 20 years of struggling just to get a hospital in this county. The proliferation of its outposts to its current state took another 20 years. Given time and assuming that Snow Hill area’s population expands, Snow Hill’s time will come as well.
It’s a shame, but the emergence of institutionalized health care delivery in the past two decades — hospitals are no longer just hospitals but are the hubs of larger medical networks — has made the independent practitioner all but extinct.
The cost is just too prohibitive, and the virtues many people ascribe to general practice physicians, such as selflessness and dedication to the community, come in second to their need to pay off exorbitant medical school costs and, eventually, to make a decent living.
That’s why most doctors around the country now sign up for salaried jobs with medical systems, which also happen to have the resources to handle the mountain of paperwork that’s now required, rather than try to go it alone.
The irony in this is that the rise of healthcare networks and spread of hospital satellite offices is precisely because of the need to bring better care to underserved areas. There is no argument that they have done that in Worcester County, which less than 30 years ago had only a handful of family doctors trying to meet the needs of the entire population.
Obviously, that has changed dramatically, and with that making major issues of convenience in years past into much smaller ones. Yet hospital network growth is tied to a community’s demonstrated need, which also influences each office’s ability to justify the expenditure, possibly support itself, or at least not be a major financial drag on the institution’s other health care assets.
Does Snow Hill need a doctor’s office? Given the reported small patient load and the proximity of clinics in Pocomoke, maybe not just yet.
It took more than 20 years of struggling just to get a hospital in this county. The proliferation of its outposts to its current state took another 20 years. Given time and assuming that Snow Hill area’s population expands, Snow Hill’s time will come as well.