Health Care Providers Impact Statement for Lincoln County
Number of docs in 2009: eight. That’s 7.8 physicians per 10,000 population1: the sixth lowest rate in eastern Washington. Washington’s rate is 21.2 physicians per 10,000; the national average is about 20.2 per 10,000.2 Washington imports about 85% of its physicians from other states or nations.3
Health professional breakout:
---The Lincoln County Hospital District employs three MDs, three DOs, two physician assistants and two nurse practitioners at its hospital in Davenport and its clinics in Davenport, Reardan and Wilbur.
---The Odessa Rural Health Center has two physicians and a nurse practitioner.4
Number of current WWAMI Spokane medical students from
Lincoln County: one
Number of current WSU pharmacy students from Lincoln County: one
Number of current WSU nursing students from Lincoln County: five
Number of current WSU nutrition and exercise physiology students from Lincoln County: one
Number of current WSU Spokane speech/hearing sciences students from Lincoln County: one
UW School of Medicine clinical faculty in Lincoln County: one MD and one DO5
Health professionals in Lincoln County who graduated from Washington colleges: Lincoln Hospital in Davenport has two physicians who served their residencies in Washington. It also has one physician assistant who graduated from the UW program and one nurse practitioner who got her credentials through the WSU College of Nursing.6
Davenport and Odessa serve as sites for medical students looking to practice their skills in a rural setting between their first and second years (Rural/Underserved Opportunities Program). There are currently no clerkship or residency sites.7
About 600 medical professionals in 26 eastern and central Washington communities serve as preceptors (instructors) for UW/WSU medical students. About a third of those work in small cities and towns. Lincoln County hosts a few of 231 professional preceptors who train WSU pharmacy students at clinical sites in the Greater Spokane/northeastern Washington/northern Idaho region.
Voice from Lincoln County: Tom Martin, the CEO of Lincoln Hospital in Davenport, says his hospital focuses on basic care and keeping patients in Davenport as much as possible. The hospital does some general surgery and offers emergency and trauma care and some forms of therapy. But it often relies on specialists from Spokane (35 miles away) for other procedures. The hospital is testing a new mobile robot with cameras mounted on it to allow doctors in other places to see patients in Davenport. Lincoln Hospital uses national firms for searches when it needs to replace providers, but Martin says the hospital is usually more successful in retaining doctors when they’re from the region, people “who have ties here and who want to be here.” He says doctors from other parts of the country often don’t stay long. Lincoln hosts UW medical students for short stints and even targets local high school students who are interested in pursuing medical careers.
Lincoln County unemployment rate (Nov. 2012): 7.1% (state average 7.8% seasonally adjusted, 7.3% not seasonally adjusted) 8
Health care/social assistance employment in Lincoln County 9: 118 (out of 3,000 jobs). It’s the county’s sixth-largest employer, providing about $475,000 in payroll, about 2% of the county’s total payroll.
Tripp Umbach estimate of annual impact of Spokane academic health sciences on Lincoln County (2009): 23 jobs, $4.4 million in economic impact, $349,000 in local taxes
Tripp Umbach projection of annual impact of Spokane academic health sciences on Lincoln County (2030): 193 jobs, $33.3 million, $2.3 million in local taxes
1UW Center for Health Workforce Studies
2UW Center for Health Workforce Studies
3Association of American Medical Colleges
4Numbers gleaned from hospital and clinic websites
5UW Clinical faculty listing: http://depts.washington.edu/fammed/clinical_faculty/listings
6Numbers calculated from hospital and clinic websites
7http://uwmedicine.washington.edu/Education/WWAMI/Documents/2011%20WWAMI%20Maps.pdf
8Washington Department of Employment Security
9Washington Department of Employment Security (third quarter, 2010)
Congressional District: 5
Legislative District: 13
Population: 10,500
County Seat: Davenport
Liz Stuhlmiller from Reardan was a member of the first first-year medical school class in Spokane. After she graduates, she'll do her family medicine residency in Spokane.