PHOENIX — Arizona needs more doctors and that is not just here in the Valley.
According to the University of Arizona, every county in the state has a shortage of primary care physicians, and it is worse in rural areas.
Medical leaders in the Valley blame the lack of enough residency and fellowship programs that are forcing graduate doctors here to look for other opportunities elsewhere. And once they leave the state, many never come back.
Arizona is facing a healthcare workforce crisis. Our state has some of the lowest numbers of physicians per capita.
“Primary care, surgery, pretty much all of the specialties. So that really drives the need,” said Randy Richardson, the Phoenix campus dean at Creighton University School of Medicine.
What is more: Arizona is growing, and with people moving here, the need for healthcare providers is growing.
According to the University of Arizona, the state needs between 500 to 700 full-time primary care physicians to eliminate the shortage. Right now, the state only meets 39% of the need with shortages in every county. Arizona also ranks 42 out of 50 states in total PCPs with about 80 per 100,000 people. The U.S sits at 95 per 100,000 people.
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“The problem is we have new medical schools in the last five to six years, almost seven medical schools, but we don’t have residency programs, training programs for them,” said Dr. Nadeem Kazi, the president of the Arizona Medical Association.
The U of A says out of the 194 combined graduates from Tucson and Phoenix in 2024, only 67 are doing residencies in Arizona. Creighton University’s medical school in Phoenix estimates only around 30% of its graduates end up staying in Arizona.
According to the National Resident Matching Program, Arizona has 108 medical residency and fellowship opportunities. While that is more than places like New Mexico, at 34, and Nevada, at 48, it is fewer than less-populated states like Massachusetts, at 224, and Tennessee, at 119. When it comes to California, at 594, and New York, at 754, Arizona simply cannot compete.
The impacts can be staggering: access to primary and preventive care can improve health outcomes, lower the cost of health care, and decrease emergency department visits and hospital readmission.
There is some progress, however, with Banner Health adding 229 additional residency and fellowship positions with the U of A College of Medicine in Phoenix.
The Arizona Medical Association is also working with the governor’s officer to tackle the issue. Medical leaders say it is also up to hospitals.
“There’s plenty of hospitals, it’s whether the hospitals want to have those kind of programs in their hospitals. Some hospitals don’t. So we’ve got to convince more hospitals to embrace that and to start having programs,” said Richardson.
Kazi says the state and federal governments can do a lot to help fund residencies and fellowships in Arizona. By 2030, experts project Arizona will require more than 3,600 physicians to adequately meet health care demands in the state.
