Why Idaho Doctors are Most Overworked in the Country
Many of us experience jobs where we feel like we're doing more work than our position might normally require. Idaho doctors can definitely understand, as they are the most overworked in the country.
Medicare Health Plans has released a new report that has found the overworked physicians in the county can be found in Idaho. The key indicator was the number of providers for the population, using U.S. Census Bureau data. The full data can be found in the Most Overworked Nurses and Physicians in America report.
Idaho has an average of 1.7 doctors for every 1000 residents. Interestingly enough, Idaho did not make the top 10 for the most overworked nurses, so the level of doctors and nurses seems to be different.
The biggest downside to the current level of providers is longer waits for appointments, and especially in more rural areas, doctors struggling to keep up with the workload.
Experts say the amount of rural areas in our state contributes to the struggle, as those doctors often face higher expectations for patient load, geographic coverage, and have to practice a broader area of expertise and have more depth in general medicine.
Check out MagicValley.com for more on this across our state.