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Health Care Provider Impact Statement for Thurston County

Number of docs in 2009: 594. That's 23.7 physicians per 10,000 population¹, the second-highest rate in western Washington. Washington's rate is 21.2 physicians per 10,000;² the national average is about 20.2 per 10,000. Washington imports about 85% of its physicians from other states or nations.³

Health professional breakout:

 ---Capital Medical Center has 33 MDs, five DOs and two nurse practitioners based at the hospital and at three of the company's Olympia clinics. It has also has three nurse practitioners at its clinic in Elma. It also draws upon 125 MDs, 10 DOs and one nurse practitioner who also practice in private clinics.

---Providence St. Peter's Hospital employs 96 MDs, two DOs and one nurse practitioner. Another 258 MDs and nine DOs occasionally practice there. Seventeen MDs practice at Providence clinics in Lacey. One physician and two nurse practitioners work at a Providence clinic in Rochester.

---Group Health's Olympia Medical Center employs 76 MDs, two DOs, 12 physician assistants and 10 nurse practitioners.⁴

Number of current WWAMI Spokane and Pullman medical students from Thurston County: two

Number of current WSU pharmacy students from Thurston County: seven

Number of current WSU nursing students from Thurston County: 28

Number of current WSU Spokane speech and hearing sciences students from Thurston County: five

UW School of Medicine clinical faculty in Thurston County: 18 MDs, one physician assistant and five nurse practitioners⁵

Health professionals from Thurston County who graduated from Washington colleges:

---Providence St. Peter's Hospital has 59 UW School of Medicine graduates work at the hospital or affiliate clinics. It also has 83 doctors who served or are serving their residencies in Washington and 30 physicians who did fellowships in Washington. The system also has one UW dental school grad.⁶

---Group Health Olympia Medical Center has 12 UW medical graduates, 14 former residents, two former fellows and six graduates of the UW physician assistant programs.⁶

Olympia serves as a residency site for medical school graduates.⁷

Thurston County unemployment rate (Nov. 2012): 6.9% (state average 7.8% seasonally adjusted, 7.3% not seasonally adjusted) ⁸

Health care/social assistance employment in Thurston County ⁹: 11,672 (out of 96,900 jobs). It's the county's second-largest employer, providing about $119 million in payroll, about 11.73% of the county's total payroll.