Wayne County’s Physicians Not Equally Distributed
Most of Wayne County’s primary care physicians are concentrated in urban areas.
Physicians are more highly concentrated in urban areas than in rural areas of Wayne County. That’s according to research conducted by the Citizens Research Council of Michigan.
The study finds the number of medical students is not keeping with population growth.
Research Associate Nicole Bradshaw says most training hospitals are in urban communities and students tend to work within 100 miles of their training center.
“Working with universities to help target students who will show an interest in primary care, and who are from rural communities could increase the number of primary care physicians in rural areas,” Bradshaw says.
Bradshaw says students born in rural areas tend to work in rural areas when they graduate. She says university programs that expose students from urban areas to underserved communities could also encourage them to move to those areas after graduation.
