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Health Care Provider Impact Statement for Mason County

Number of docs in 2009: 35. That’s 6.0 physicians per 10,000 population¹, the third-lowest rate in western 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:

---Mason General Hospital employs 15 MDs, four DOs, one optometrist, one physician assistant and two nurse practitioners at the hospital and its eight clinics.

---Harrison Medical Center, based in Bremerton, also employs 10 MDs, two DOs, one physician assistant and six nurse practitioners at its urgent care clinic in Belfair^.4

Number of current WWAMI Spokane and Pullman medical students from Mason County: one

Number of current WSU pharmacy students from Mason County: one

Number of current WSU nursing students from Mason County: three

Number of current WSU speech and hearing sciences students from Mason County: three

UW School of Medicine clinical faculty in Mason County: two MDs⁵

Health professionals in Mason County who graduated from Washington colleges:

---Mason General Hospital employs one UW School of Medicine graduate and four doctors who completed their residencies in Washington.

---Harrison Medical Center’s Belfair clinic has two UW medical graduates.⁶

Shelton serves as a site for medical students looking to practice their skills in a rural setting between their first and second years (Rural/Underserved Opportunities Program). The county does not yet have a residency site.⁷

Mason County unemployment rate (Nov. 2012): 9.1% (state average 7.8% seasonally adjusted, 7.3% not seasonally adjusted) ⁸

Health care/social assistance employment in Mason County ⁹: 992 (out of 13,400 jobs). It’s the county’s fifth-largest employer, providing about $6.0 million in payroll, about 5.3% of the county’s total payroll.