Sacramento is at high risk of an OB-GYN shortage

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KCRA) –

A report released by the largest online network for health care providers said that Sacramento women will likely have more trouble getting an OB-GYN in years to come up.

According to the Doximity report, a social networking site with 700,000 physician members and more than a million members overall, Sacramento ranks ninth among the highest risk cities for shortage of OB-GYN.

Here are the top 10 cities with the greatest risk of scarcity:

1. Las Vegas, Nevada
2. Los Angeles, California
3. Miami, Florida
4. Orlando, Florida
5. Riverside, California [19659006] Detroit, Michigan
6. St. Louis, Missouri
7. Salt Lake City, Utah
8. Sacramento, California
9. Tampa, Florida

"Sacramento is at risk of a shortage because they have the greatest number of elders OB-GYN, "said Peter Alperin, training internist and vice president of connectivity solutions at Doximity. "OB-GYNs tend to retire a few years earlier than most other doctors, with their average age of retirement being about 59 years, while most doctors are a few years older." [19659003] OB-GYNs in each city and the average number of deliveries per doctor.

The ages were taken from Doximity data. To measure the workload of an OB-GYN, Doximity said that it measured the number of births in each city and divided that by the number of OB-GYNs in each city. The birth data are from the National Center for Health Statistics and the Centers for Disease Control's WONDER database and from 1965.

Alperin indicated that other factors, including the coverage of Insurance, were taken into account. and gynecologists did not work with Doximity on the study, but were in agreement with the idea that a shortage is a problem. A group report released in 2011 indicated that the nation would run out of more than 8,800 OB-GYNs by 2020.

"I deliver babies from people I've delivered. multiple babies that I delivered, which is always a special treat, "Sacramento OB-GYN Victor Chan said.

"I am looking forward to contributing to the shortage here in Sacramento very soon," he said with a laugh.

Chan, now 66, has been in private practice for 34 years. He described the specialty as painful, with some doctors working 80 hours a week.

"You're up every hour and you have to adapt – your family has to make the sacrifices when you're not at home and you" work hard for other people who have things important things that need to be taken into account, "said Chan. "Many doctors are more mobile, and they move where there are opportunities and sometimes fewer doctors will stay in a community for 30 or 40 years."

Alperin says that Sacramento will have to find a new source of obstetricians, which could include finding obstetricians who are currently trained and moving them around the region or attracting more obstetricians into the Sacramento area. "In Sacramento, we also have an additional challenge related to managed care: in terms of opportunities for OB-GYN to succeed long-term in their careers, sometimes Sacramento is not the right place for them" Chan said.

Chan said that private practices like hers are declining as health care groups, such as Dignity Health, Kaiser Permanente, Sutter Health and UC Davis, perform a dominant percentage of work in Sacramento.