Important Facts for Physician Supply

Definition

This indicator report includes physicians per 10,000 civilian population.[[br]]

Numerator

1) Number of physicians.[[br]] 2) All physicians

Denominator

Civilian population.

Data Interpretation Issues

Active physicians, professionally active: Data are presented for physicians currently engaged in patient care or other professional activity for a minimum of 20 hours per week. Physicians with unknown addresses or unknown type of practice or present employment are excluded. All physicians: Includes M.D. with active or inactive status, classified or not classified status, and employed by federal government or non-federal industry. Inactive Status includes physicians who are retired, semiretired, working part time, temporarily not in practice, or not active for other reasons and indicated they worked 20 hours or less per week. Not Classified Status includes physicians who did not provide information on their type of practice or their present employment. Federal Status is defined as full time employment by the federal government, including the Army, Navy, Air Force, Veteran's Administration, the Public Health Service and other federally funded agencies. M.D. Data are included for Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands

Why Is This Important?

The ratio of physicians to persons in a population is an indication of the adequacy of the health system and the access to care for persons in that population.

How Are We Doing?

In 2022/2023, the ratio of primary care physicians to population varied between the 13 local health districts (LHDs) in Utah from 74.49 per 10,000 in Summit County Health District to 3.52 in Tooele County Health District. This ratio varied among the 29 counties in Utah from 74.49 per 10,000 people in Summit County to 0 in Daggett County. It must be kept in mind that primary care physicians are classified by county, but physicians who practice in multiple locations may see patients who reside in surrounding counties.

How Do We Compare With the U.S.?

The ratio of active physicians to persons in the Utah population has been lower than the U.S. ratio for all years reported. In 2019, there were 29.9 active physicians per 10,000 population in the U.S. compared to 21.0 per 10,000 in Utah.

What Is Being Done?

he Office of Primary Care and Rural Health (PCRH) works to improve access to quality primary, behavioral, and oral healthcare in rural and underserved communities. PCRH is an office of the Utah Department of Health and Human Services and receives funding from federal grants and state appropriations. For more information, visit [https://ruralhealth.utah.gov/].