Dr. Thomas Bohmfalk, a family medicine physician, examines Sabina Rodriguez at Georgetown Medical Clinic on May 28.[/caption]

Health care systems in Georgetown are working to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to providing primary care to a growing and aging population as experts warn of a national and statewide shortage of physicians.

St. David’s Medical Group and Baylor Scott & White Health are looking at ways to add physicians and other medical professionals throughout the city, including recruiting new doctors and building clinics.

“I think we have a shortage of [primary care] physicians that we’re seeing in the market,” said John Rebok, vice president of physician operations at St. David’s HealthCare.

According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, which tracks primary care physicians, the three ZIP codes that include the city of Georgetown—78626, 78628 and 78633—had 66 primary care doctors for 70,411 residents in 2013. Primary care physicians include family practice/medicine, general practice, internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics and/or gynecology or geriatrics, according to DSHS.

Georgetown was named the second fastest-growing city in the U.S. for cities with populations larger than 50,000, according to data released by the U.S. Census Bureau on May 20. In a news release, city planners said they expected Georgetown to add more than 25,000 residents in the next 10 to 20 years.

“We need to stay ahead of the population growth,” said Dr. Rob Watson, chief medical officer for the Baylor Scott & White Health Austin-Round Rock region.

Bo Bowman, director of operations for St. David’s Medical Group, said the growing population is one of the top concerns the health care system is working to address.

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Filling a need

Hugh Brown, St. David’s Georgetown Hospital CEO, said the lack of primary care doctors is often felt by older adults on Medicare or about to transition to Medicare.

“That was the big push in the Medicare area,” he said. “There are still doctors taking Medicare, but you couldn’t see them for four to six weeks.”

In response to the need for additional doctors accepting Medicare, St. David’s Medical Group opened the Georgetown Center for Adult Medicine with two board-certified geriatricians in January. The practice is seeing patients in the Austin Avenue Medical Plaza until it can open its own facility at 105 Wildwood Drive, Bldg. 1, stes. 105 and 111, which is expected to open in late summer or early fall, Bowman said.

The clinic has seen 1,000 patients to date, he said.

“Of those 1,000 patients, about 80 percent do not have a primary care doctor. They’re either new to town or have been in town and haven’t been able to establish [a relationship] with a provider,” Bowman said. “We’ve been really excited to serve that [population], and I think that number will grow.”

Bowman said the response to the clinic’s opening in the temporary space has been so large, the health care provider is looking to recruit additional medical staff when the permanent location opens later this year.

“I think it’s going to get busier and busier, and when we move into the new location … I foresee us needing to hire more providers. I don’t know if that will be in the form of [doctors], it may be nurse practitioners,” he said. “It’s honestly everything we can do [to keep up with the need].”

St. David’s Medical Group is also looking to recruit additional physicians to the Georgetown Medical Clinic, Bowman said.

Baylor Scott & White Health is also looking at ways to address the region’s growth, Watson said.

Since 2006 the medical provider has grown to 15 clinics, with 14 of those facilities providing primary medical care services, and in the past four years has hired 50 primary care physicians to serve the region, he said.

“We look at where the population is growing and continue to grow there,” Watson said. “We’re very focused on putting those clinics in growing communities.”

Watson said based on growth projections, Baylor Scott & White Health is considering clinic locations along the Ronald Reagan Boulevard corridor in western Georgetown. The health care system has also had discussions with the city of Jarrell about a clinic location; however, no decisions have been made.

“Where we grow and how we grow is not accidental,” Watson said. “We are looking at projected population growth and demographics [to determine future locations].”

In July, Baylor Scott & White Health reopened the Georgetown Central Clinic in a new location at 1507 Rivery Blvd., with three medical providers and room for three more.

Watson said newer clinics are all built with growth in mind.

“Usually we start with one or two [providers] and add additional medical personnel as demand grows,” he said, adding that Baylor Scott & White Health was looking to hire a part-time physician for the central clinic. “We’ve seen a lot of growth in that area already.”

Future of health care

Dr. Jonathan MacClements, past chair of the Texas Medical Association’s Committee on Physician Distribution and Health Care Access, said the physician shortage goes beyond not having enough primary care physicians in Georgetown. The issue is one medical associations in the state and across the nation are working to address, he said.

The state is ranked 45th in the nation in the number of physicians per population, according to a study completed by the Texas Medical Association. The Association of American Medical Colleges estimates a shortage of 46,000-90,000 physicians by 2025.

MacClements said moving doctors from other areas of the country to Texas would be a temporary fix. However, part of the solution lies with increasing the number of medical students and graduate medical education opportunities in the state.

“One way [to increase the number of doctors] is to get more to move here. … That’s not sustainable,” he said, adding that doctors tend to stay in the areas where they complete their residency programs. “We need more graduate medical education slots [in Texas].”

MacClements said another way is to address health care in innovative ways.

“That’s the big thing we are doing at the university [level],” he said. “As a profession of physicians, we are constantly monitoring health care needs. … Our needs [locally] reflect those of the needs of the nation and the state. At the end of the day, you want to make sure that the people in your community have their needs met.”