Originating from Saint Paul, MN, Doctor Pundit is all about the intersection between healthcare policy, science, politics, and all surrounding points and issues. Although the entire scope of healthcare delivery and policy is much too encompassing for just one blogger to cover, I'll try my best. Enjoy! From time to time, you'll also see other items of interest that probably have nothing to do with health policy in the least. Try and keep an open mind. :) Proprietor & Editor -- Michael Douglas, MD, MBANorth Dakota Finds Itself Suddenly in Need of Provider Manpower
How about practicing in the great state of North Dakota? Yeah, I know, it really isn’t one of those desirable locations you see featured on many a solicitation to consider as a healthcare provider. (I usually get at least 10 or so such solicitations to join weekly, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen one advertisement extolling the tremendous opportunities ND has to offer the recently trained physician.) But ever since employment opportunities essentially burgeoned during the Great Recession from that state’s oil boom, there has been a ripple effect on the economy. Workers lured by the promise of six-figure salaries and benefits seemingly unattainable in other parts of the country have flooded the state over the past couple of years — creating strains local vendors, local town commerce, long-term residents and their property values — and yes — acute hospitals.
The furious pace of oil exploration that has made North Dakota one of the healthiest economies in the country has had the opposite effect on the region’s health care providers. Swamped by uninsured laborers flocking to dangerous jobs, medical facilities in the area are sinking under skyrocketing debt, a flood of gruesome injuries and bloated business costs from the inflated economy.
Ouch! North Dakota has never really been a mecca for the non-regionally trained physician without ties to the area, but with healthcare infrastructure withering in some communities by sudden increases in population, we just might see some of those glossy snail mail adverts come from ND after all. | LINK
