Primary care physician help keep seniors out of the hospital

As the primary-care workforce continues to be strained, new research shows that areas with higher levels of primary care have fewer patient deaths and preventable hospitalizations, according to a study in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

Researchers evaluated seniors with Medicare benefits who live in areas with higher levels of adult primary care physicians and physicians providing primary care. They found that elder patients were less likely to die or land in the hospital.

Experts agree that graduating medical students electing other specialties other than primary care results in a primary care vacuum that must be filled.
If the United States could fulfill the primary-care need, it would result in 50,000 fewer deaths and 436,000 fewer hospitalizations in a year, notes Reuters.