San Juan County faces lack of health care access; residents express concerns (2024)

New Mexico is expected to be short 2,118 doctors by 2030

San Juan County is experiencing several barriers when trying to access health care, according to the 2023 Professional Research Consultants Community Health report. The majority of survey respondents believe the problem stems from a lack of health care providers.

“One of my biggest concerns is the shortage of health care professionals in this community,” one key informant said in response to the survey. “This was a vibrant part of our economic base and the pride of the community for the services that were available not that many years ago.”

Key informants were asked whether they perceived the lack of health care as a major, minor or moderate problem. The majority, 47.8%, said it was a moderate problem, and 40.3% said it was a major problem.

A health care provider who answered “major” said the lack of care providers familiar to the area was the issue.

“The amount of providers in the community is low,” they said. “It is hard to get in to see someone, especially if you are new to this community. The amount of traveling nurses who have no attachment to this community is also an issue. Travelers do not understand the demographics unique to our area.”

The drive for resident physicians

San Juan Regional Medical Center is working on developing an internal medicine residency program at San Juan Regional Medical Center, supported by a grant through the New Mexico Primary Care Training consortium.

“We should start to see our first residents in two years,” Said Chief Medical Officer Dr. Robert Underwood. “A residency program for internal medicine and most primary care specialties is about three years long, and so you have to finish med school before you start residency. So we would hope that we will start graduating new internal medicine doctors from our own residency program in 2029. May seem like a long ways away, but it'll be here before we know it. Instead of trying to recruit from outside, we will have our own residents coming through training right here in our own community.”

Additionally, the state is exploring initiatives to increase Medicaid reimbursem*nt and offering student loan forgiveness to make New Mexico, especially rural areas, more appealing for primary care providers.

The shortage of primary care providers is a national crisis.

A Robert Graham Center study stated that in order to maintain stable primary care, New Mexico will need an additional 326 primary care physicians by 2030. From July 2020 to June 2022, San Juan County has recruited 24 physicians in the community.

New Mexico is ranked 32 in total physician supply and 26 in primary physicians. Of the 33 counties in New Mexico, 32 experience a shortage of health professions. The state is expected to be short 2,118 doctors by 2030.

Part of Sandoval County and Dona Ana County experience a shortage of primary care, while San Juan County is part of the 30 other counties that are experiencing a complete shortage.

Other problems include delays, transportation

In San Juan County, 41.4% have experienced difficulties or delays receiving health care.

After the malpractice laws passed in New Mexico, the amount of providers has decreased.

“Certainly, the medical malpractice environment in New Mexico is not favorable for providers,” Underwood said. “And that has made it a little more difficult to recruit, and also caused some providers to leave.

“If you are a provider, and you are coming out of training and you are trying to decide where you're going to practice, you want to move to an area where that wouldn't be as much of a burden. And so some of our neighboring states, that burden is not as significant, and we compete with them for practice environment where people want to work.”