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Health Care Providers Impact Statement for Yakima County

Number of docs in 2009: 375. That's 15.7 physicians per 10,000 population¹, the sixth  highest 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:

---Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital has 37 MDs and one DO who work in the hospital. It also employs 59 MDs, six DOs, 17 physician assistants and 13 nurse practitioners who are based in offices around Yakima. In addition, the hospital calls upon another 171 MDs and 19 DOs who occasionally provide care.

---Yakima Regional Medical and Cardiac Center says 27 MDs, seven DOs, three physician assistants and one nurse practitioner practice at its hospital and in medical offices on its campus. It also has issued privileges to another 179 MDs, 20 DOs, 14 physician assistants and six dentists.

---Sunnyside Community Hospital has 19 MDs, five DOs, three physician assistants and one nurse practitioner at it hospital and clinics in Sunnyside. The hospital also employs two MDs, two DOs, three physician assistants and one nurse practitioner at its Grandview clinics.

---Toppenish Community Hospital has 10 MDs, two DOs and one nurse practitioner working onsite. It also draws from 22 MDs and one DO who work in Toppenish, Yakima and other Yakima Valley cities.

---The Yakima Valley Farm Workers' Clinic has several facilities in Yakima County. In Yakima, it employs 16 MDs, three DOs, seven physician assistants, one nurse practitioner, six dentists and two psychologists. In Toppenish, it has 11 MDs, one DO, two physician assistants, three nurse practitioners and two dentists. In Grandview, it has four physicians, three DOs, four physician assistants, two nurse practitioners and two dentists. In Wapato, it has one DO, one physician assistant and two dentists.⁴

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

Number of current WSU pharmacy students from Yakima County: five

Number of current WSU nursing students from Yakima County: 79

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

Number of current WSU health policy and administration students from Yakima County: one

UW School of Medicine clinical faculty in Yakima County: 12 MDs, two DOs, one Pharm.D. and one physician assistant⁵

Health professionals in Yakima County who graduated from Washington colleges:⁶

---Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital has 39 UW School of Medicine graduates working on staff and in its group of consulting physicians. It also has 58 doctors who did their residencies in Washington and one graduate of the UW dental school.

---Yakima Regional Medical Center has 33 UW medical graduates, 47 former Washington medical residents, and 12 doctors who did fellowships in Washington. It also has one nurse practitioner who graduated from the WSU College of Nursing.

---The Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic has three UW medical graduates and seven former residents. It also has three physician assistants who graduated from the UW program and one graduate of the UW College of Dentistry.

---Toppenish Community Hospital has seven UW medical graduates, three former residents and one former fellow.

---Sunnyside Community Hospital has one UW medical grad, one former resident, one graduate of UW's physician assistant program and one WSU nursing graduate.

Yakima's two hospitals jointly fund a clinic (Central Washington Family Medicine) that provides residencies to 21 new family medicine doctors. The residency instructors include 24 MDs, 10 DOs and two physician assistants. Yakima Valley Memorial and Yakima Regional Medical Center also have clinical clerkships in family medicine, neurology and obstetrics/gynecology for third and fourth-year medical students. Yakima and Toppenish 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).⁷

Voices from Yakima County: Greg Sawyer from Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital says the residents in his city train in obstetrics (that's becoming less common, he says), acute care, minor operations, a range of areas. He says Yakima is sometimes able to hire some of the best residents. The problem, he says, is getting them to come to Yakima in the first place; it doesn't have a reputation for being a great place to live. His hospital has also hosted many WSU pharmacy students. And it takes students from a new osteopathic school in Yakima and would like to affiliate with it. Lori Stephenson from Yakima Regional Medical and Cardiac Center estimates her hospital hires one or two of the Yakima residents per year. She says many are either native to the area or have ties to it. She supports the UW/WSU plan to expand the medical education program and says her hospital would like to hire more of its graduates.

The WSU College of Pharmacy operates a residency program at Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital. Two faculty members teach there.

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. In addition, Yakima County is home to 58 professional preceptors who work at clinical sites with WSU pharmacy students.

The WSU College of Nursing operates one of its two Clinical Performance & Simulation Labs in Yakima (the other is in Spokane). The lab provides a supervised place where nursing students can practice their skills on life-size manikins. The college offers classes for undergraduate and graduate level nurses at its Yakima campus.

Yakima 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 Yakima County ⁹: 13,144 (out of 108,700 jobs). It's the county's third-largest employer, providing about $136 million in payroll, about 16% of the county's total payroll.

Tripp Umbach estimate of annual impact of Spokane academic health sciences on Yakima County (2009): 47 jobs, $9 million in economic impact, $714,000 in local taxes

Tripp Umbach projection of annual impact of Spokane academic health sciences on Yakima County (2030): 395 jobs, $68 million in economic impact, $4.75 million in local taxes