Bill Straub's post for the fifth seminar follows.
"Somewhat belatedly in this segment, I would like to introduce the notion of bringing retired physicians and nurses back into the workforce as a partial solution to the staffing crisis facing community health centers (CHCs)as they brace to provide access for upwards of fifteen million of the thirty-two million Americans to be covered by ACA by 2014. For the current 8000 CHC sites to meet this challenge will require doubling their capacity and staff, amounting to an additional 15,000 physicians and 11,000 nurses.
Increasing the supply from the educational pipeline; further increasing the use of nurse practitioners and physician assistants; and doubling the contribution from the National Health Service Corps are all necessary, but likely insuffeicient to meet the 2014 need.Tapping into the approximately 200,000 retired physicians (40% with primary care backgrounds)and 800,000 retired nurses offers one partial and temporary solution, until an adequate workforce can be stabilized.
Our (American Health Initiative) experience over the past five years, recruiting retired health professionals for volunteer service in Free Clinics, suggests that this valuable resource could be tapped to help ameliorate the coming CHC workforce crisis. Recently retired clinicians have much to offer and many are seeking opportunities to stay professionally and mentally active in such constructive and collegial efforts."
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