TAMPA, Fla. (WFTS) — Healthcare is one of the hot topics for people who live in Florida. As more people move here, the need for physicians continues to grow.
Florida could see more than 300,000 people move in annually over the next five years. And while the average age in the state is diversifying, a third of the state's doctors are nearing retirement age.
Florida Statewide and Regional Physician Workforce Analysis: 2019 to 2035 predicts a shortfall of 18,000doctors by 2035.
But Tampa Family Health Centers says there are plans to address the doctor shortage.
"Earlier this year, we received our initial accreditation for a 48-resident program in collaboration with BayCare Hospital. We matched a total of 6 residents that were in our top 15 picks. We're very excited to train these residents in community health in conjunction with hospital medicine. This is a unique program that is one of the first of its kind in Florida to be partnered with a major hospital system," said Dr. Ashley Mcphie, TFHC's Chief Medical Information Officer.
By June, the first six residents will begin their work with TFHC. Residents will receive their hospital-based education at St. Joseph’s Hospital-South and provide outpatient care to TFHC patients at its Osborne location
In Florida, state lawmakers just passed the “Live Healthy” program. It allocates $70 million for increasing resident retention rates.
Tampa Family Health Centers has other ways to address the needs of the community. Roberta Brown, a patient with them, says the flexibility that they offer is helpful.
"The keyword is one-stop shop. So for dental visits, any kind of pain or sickness, I'll even bring my son here. So all of my needs are met here at Tampa Family Health Center," she said. "If I'm here and I'm having a headache, and my doctor can't see me, I can always go to one of the other locations, and I'm able to be seen sooner than later. Rather than wait a couple of days or wait the next day."
Brown regularly sees Maritza Torres, a nurse practitioner there. Torres says the shortage can affect the work in the healthcare field.
"It is definitely always a challenge to be able to find good physicians, good nurse practitioners, good PAs," she said.
But she adds that's not exactly a problem with TFHC.
"We're a family here with our, with all of our staff. So you know, everybody has their home family, and we have our work family. So we definitely try to support each other one way or another. We have the pleasure of having multiple locations. So sometimes if there's somebody short at one center, we can also adjust our staffing and move maybe to another center to be able to meet that need to see where the needs are specifically for that day," she added.
TFHC CEO & President Sherry Hoback explains there are other avenues that makes it easy for them to provide for the community.
"We are leveraging our telehealth with our providers that are in office to make sure that our patients don't have to miss work and come to the office if they don't need to. And then [Wednesday], we're also celebrating in our Educational Institute of Tampa Family, which is one of our workforce solutions for Hillsborough County and beyond. We have several medical programs here. We have medical assistants, dental, pharmacy, and medical billing and coding. So we are not only trying to help our workforce shortage but also others here in the Tampa Bay area," she said.
Tampa Family Health Centers has 18 locations, including five mobile units. In 2022, TFHC counted about 312,000 patient visits. 92% of patients reported incomes at or below 200% of the poverty level, and 76% either had no insurance or were enrolled in Medicaid.
If you're interested in a job or making one of the locations your healthcare home, you can find more information here.
