title: The medical workforce in South Carolina: a review of supply and demand.
abstract: If even the most conservative projections of the number of doctors needed by 2020 materializes, it is imperative that those of us committed to improving the health status of South Carolinians and reducing the deplorable rates of preventable diseases dedicate ourselves to reversing the reduction in the rate of FTE primary care physicians and meeting the demand for a growing medical workforce in the years ahead. The projected shortage of physicians in South Carolina has been made even more urgent by the passage of the Obama administrations health care reform, which will add an estimated 32 million Americans to the rolls of the medically insured. The problems these phenomena present cannot be remedied unless we increase substantially the number of medical students and continue to raise the number of residency positions.
authors.affiliation: USC School of Medicine, Building #3, Suite 301, Columbia, SC 29208, USA. andrew.sorensen@uscmed.sc.edu
authors.forename: Andrew A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Sorensen
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010820:Physicians / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D058007:Physicians, Primary Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012577:Schools, Medical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013022:South Carolina; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data