Provider Shortages Are Hitting Some Specialties More Than Others. Will UC See the Overflow Patients?

We talk about the shortage of healthcare providers in appropriately urgent, though somewhat vague, terms. The fact is that some specialties are having a harder time than others right now, though—one of them being obstetrics and gynecology.  According to a report published by Becker’s Hospital Review, 2023 applications for Ob/Gyn residencies are down from 2022. It goes on to note that numerous hospitals in the United States are closing or have already stopped offering obstetrics services altogether. And with U.S. maternal death rates during or shortly after pregnancy having risen 40% in 2021, according to an article published in The Wall Street Journal, it’s clear the need for access to the services typically offered by an Ob/Gyn is only growing. This begs the question of how well-prepared urgent care providers might be to pick up the slack—because, ready or not, when a woman has symptoms that require an immediate attention she very well might be headed your way instead of the emergency room. JUCM published an article that could be of service when the patient’s complaints are related to pregnancy. You can read An Urgent Care Approach to Complications and Conditions of Pregnancy in our archive right now.