Obstetrician exodus in Las Vegas crowding gynecology appointments

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Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

Pregnant women are not the only patients affected by the recent exodus of Las Vegas obstetricians. As pregnant patients take up coveted appointment times, more nonpregnant women are forced to wait longer for care.

Las Vegas Review-Journal, Nov. 5, 2002

Nancy Allen had to wait six months to have suspicious lumps removed from her uterus and ovaries because she couldn't get an appointment for the surgery.

She says she probably would still be waiting to have the hysterectomy had she not stormed into her doctor's office and refused to leave until the procedure was scheduled....

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2002/Nov-05-Tue-2002/news/19994666.html

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This is wierd, I just made my annual gyne exaim appointment. I have to wait until March 14th!!! I live in Pa, can't help but wonder if the problem is occuring here. Did you see that part in the article about how the HMO is short of OB/gyne docs because they fired a bunch for being critical of the HMO. :eek: :eek: :eek: No matter that thousands of patients are endangered and inconvienced. These docs committed the ultimate crime. THEY CRITICIZED THE HMO!!!

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It is happening in PA. Saw a story in the Pgh. Post Gazette that talked about how DR's was almost doubling in PA. DR's are leaving in droves.

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The problem is that my HRT script runs out middle of Feb and my appointment is middle of March.

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I am in Pittsburgh and in the middle of October I called my regular GYN to make a regular yearly check up. I cannot be seen until the middle of December. Had I not been a previous patient they said it would have been about a 5 month wait.

I have a friend who lives in the State College/Bellfont area in the center of the state. She was having some GYN problems and it took her 6 months to get in to see someone. Once she became a regular patient though, it was easier to get in. Now she is a few months pregnant and was told that she will automatically be given a Mid Wife, as the Dr.'s will not take any patients unless the are high risk.

She doesn't mind the mid-wife though. Much easier to get into to see rather than the doctor.

Yes, Pennsylvania has one of the highest rates of . A few months ago there was an article in the Post Gazette about a group of doctors who were closing their doors after 20 or 30 years of delivering babies - just because the insurance was too high to pay. I wish I could remember the specifics of the article.

Pennsylvania is having a hard enough time as it is retaining young professionals. This certainly won't help us in keeping OB/GYN's.

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Specializes in Community Health Nurse.

Hmmmm....sounds like nurses should pursue becoming midwives more than in the past so we can take over the "healthy baby" delivery system from those docs who don't have the time to deliver them anymore due to their rising cost of . Might look into a career field of midwife myself. :nurse:

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Company officials recently terminated several obstetricians from their HMO-Medicaid plan because the doctors were publicly critical of managed care companies.

Jeez, I wonder why they had reason to be critical of managed care companies.

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Hi cheerful,

I've often thought the same things myself. If you want to be a mid wife, now is probably a good time.

I don't know much about training and education to be a mid wife but I imagine some of that time must be spent with a mid-wife. I wonder if mid wives spend more of their time doing deliveries, do they have less time to spend with those training to be mid wives?

Anyone know?

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Specializes in Community Health Nurse.

Hi Colleen :)

I will investigate those questions because I am seriously considering the midwife career field. I don't know much about them either, but have heard they are wonderful from women who have had one during their pregnancies and deliveries.

This could be a wide open market for nurses that hasn't been pursued as heavily as other areas in nursing, wouldn't you think?

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FYI: one of our docs was talking the other day about what he pays for malpractice ins. per year. Over $100,000. :eek:

Heather

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The managed care company that fired them, Sierra Health Services, did so on bad faith. The CEO, Anthony Marlon (who is a cardiologist) went on TV and called the OB's "fabricators" saying they lied how much their insurance premiums had increased. Of note, this same CEO removed our only trauma center from their HMO due to personality conflicts with the trauma center CEO.

What a mess. Anyway, the OB's are fighting back in trying to push legislation giving patients the right to see whatever doctor they want to.

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Specializes in LDRP; Education.
Originally posted by colleen10

I don't know much about training and education to be a mid wife but I imagine some of that time must be spent with a mid-wife. I wonder if mid wives spend more of their time doing deliveries, do they have less time to spend with those training to be mid wives?

Anyone know?

I had a friend from my old L&D unit graduate from nurse midwifery school last year.

To be a midwife, (I assume you are talking about a CNM - not a lay midwife) at least in THIS state, requires graduation from a graduate midwifery program (it's basically your Master's degree)

Here's a link to the admission requirements to the Midwifery school.

Her clinical time was spent with some obstetricians and some practicing midwifes.

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