Doctors flee Puerto Rico for US mainland, forcing many of the sick to follow

WASHINGTON POST
Associated Press,
Wednesday, April 17, 12:58 PM

R.Arduengo/AP - A doctor walks through a hallway at the trauma center in San Juan, PR. A medical exodus is taking place  as doctors and nurses flee for the U.S. mainland, seeking higher salaries and better reimbursements from insurers

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Going to the doctor in Puerto Rico has for years often meant getting in line. Now, it might mean getting on a plane.

A medical exodus is taking place in the Caribbean territory as doctors and nurses flee for the U.S. mainland, seeking higher salaries and better reimbursement from insurers. Many of their patients, frustrated by long waits and a scarcity of specialists, are finding they have no choice but to follow them off the island.

Among them is Marilu Flores, a 60-year-old rural mail carrier who is battling advanced rheumatoid arthritis. She not only is flying to the U.S. mainland to receive treatment; she’s moving to Texas. “The best doctors left a long time ago,” she said.

In the last five years, the number of doctors in Puerto Rico has dropped by 13 percent, from 11,397 to 9,950, according to the island’s Medical Licensing and Studies Board. The biggest losses are primary care physicians and specialists within a specialty, such as thoracic oncologists.

Of the roughly 400 cardiologists who practiced in Puerto Rico about five years ago, only about 150 remain. The number of anesthesiologists has dropped from roughly 300 to about 100 in roughly the same time period, said Dr. Eduardo Ibarra, president of the island’s Association of Surgeons.

“Same with the neurosurgeons. They don’t even number 20 now,” Ibarra said. “There are no specialized surgeons in certain areas.” Those seeking a thoracic oncologist, for example, have to go to Florida, if they can afford it. “It’s truly catastrophic,” he said.

The exodus of doctors is part of a larger wave of professionals who have left the U.S. island territory in recent years, settling in states such as Florida and New York, where there is a big demand for bilingual workers, especially police and nurses. Many Puerto Ricans also seek to escape a wave of violent crime and higher cost of living. Almost a million more Puerto Ricans now live on the mainland than on the island.

Medical professionals say they expect the situation will worsen. President Barack Obama’s new health care law means U.S. states will soon seek more doctors amid an influx of patients, said Dr. Guillermo Tirado, an internal medicine specialist in Puerto Rico.

“All states are preparing to cull a lot of doctors from Puerto Rico,” he said. “If we have a big exodus now, we’re going to see it get worse ... There hasn’t been a revolution yet because the escape valve is to buy a plane ticket to Orlando,” referring to the many patients who fly to the U.S. for treatment if they can afford it. Puerto Rico currently does not meet federal recommendations on the number and types of doctors needed per capita, Tirado said.

The island of 3.7 million people has no more than two pediatric neurosurgeons, even though

Dr. Roberto Ramirez  recently

reclocated his family to Florida.

guidelines state there should be at least one pediatric neurosurgeon per roughly 80,000 people, he said.
Puerto Rico also lacks 93 full-time primary care physicians to adequately cover the medical needs of the population, according to statistics from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, which tracks areas suffering from a shortage of health professionals. Of the island’s 78 municipalities, 37 need more health care professionals, including the capital of San Juan and Ponce, the island’s second largest city. The island has roughly 7,000 primary care physicians, Ibarra said.

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