Primary Care Challenges and Solutions

On Friday, May 12, 2023, the Health & Medicine Forum for Justice in Health Policy hosted a virtual forum focused on the challenges facing primary care.

Panelists:
Dr. Eric Reinhart, MD, PhD (Political Anthropologist, Psychoanalyst, and Physician, Northwestern University)
Dr. Steven K. Rothschild, MD (Chair, Department of Family Medicine at Rush Medical College; Board Member & President, Health & Medicine)
Dr. LaMenta Conway, MD (Founder and Board President, I Am Abel Foundation)

Moderator:
Dr. Claudia Fegan, MD (Chief Medical Officer, Cook County Health; Board Member & Vice President, Health & Medicine)

Primary care is meant to be the first and most stable point of contact between patients and care providers. Yet with a shortage of providers, the relative lack of racially and ethnically diverse providers, the complications of health insurance, corporate investment in primary care, the ongoing pandemic, and a myriad of other factors, primary care is at a crisis point.

Even when one is insured—unjustly, many aren’t—accessing health care can be a significant challenge. Wait times, taking leave from work, finding childcare, transportation, dealing with high costs, experiencing discrimination and disrespect in medical settings, mis- or distrust of the medical system, are all personal barriers. There are not enough primary care providers to see the patients who otherwise have access to care, and the ones we have are being pushed to their limits. The patient/primary care provider relationship is eroding.

Where do we go from here, to create a primary care system that better serves patients and health care providers alike?

This forum, hosted by Health & Medicine Policy Research Group, was a discussion of the structural issues facing primary care and what the future might look like from a political, community health, and medical education perspective, including exploring steps to surmount access issues, and burnout among providers, and the barriers keeping many prospective health care workers out of primary care.

We invite all individuals who are interested in exploring this topic to listen to the recording, including those working in public health, health care, government, social service, and advocacy.