To the editor:
In response to Carole Owens’ Jan. 1 column “A Shortage of Doctors,” the writer is partly correct when she states that primary care and specialty doctors are in increasingly short supply, particularly in rural areas such as ours. The causes for this are many and complicated: the economics of health care in rural areas with aging populations, the lure of urban or suburban communities offering higher wages to physicians, and the burden of debt that leaves many medical school graduates with little financial flexibility.
However, the author suggests that medical doctors alone are the only source of high-quality, primary medical care in the Berkshires and that physicians “need nurse practitioners to pick up the slack.”
In today’s health care environment, in nearly all medical settings and not just in rural areas, primary care medicine is increasingly provided by highly qualified nurse practitioners and physician assistants who work alongside physicians in a team setting. These non-physician professionals manage their own patients who have chosen them as their primary care providers.
This holds especially true at Community Health Programs’ six primary care medical practices in the Berkshires. Blended CHP primary care teams work side-by-side, sharing expertise and patient care strategies while drawing on CHP’s nutrition, physical therapy, vision, dental, behavioral health, family services and women’s health care services as needed. As a result, Community Health Programs is accepting new patients at all CHP practice locations in Great Barrington, Lee, Pittsfield, Adams and North Adams. These practices and other CHP health care services care for more than 30,000 patients.
Indeed, rural Berkshire County would benefit from more primary and specialty health care providers to serve our community. In addition, improving rural health care policy, enhancing student loan support and creating industry incentives will assist with long-term planning and support.
In the short term, better informing patients of their local primary care options will help to improve the overall health of our local population.
Everett Lamm, M.D.
Great Barrington
The writer is the chief medical officer of Community Health Programs, which serves patients throughout Berkshire County
