Manpower and Use of Surgical Resources in the United States
Access to surgical care is acutely dependent on both personal and community resources. There are two critical circumstances, however, in which we appear to be unprepared for resource shortages. One is the growing lack of insurance for people in the United States (now at 45.7 million people). We have little information about whether and how the uninsured get access to needed surgical care or how that might be improved. The second circumstance is the rising number of elderly. We now have suggestive evidence that as the baby boomer population ages, we may find a shortage of surgeons, operating rooms, and other resources to manage the expected doubling or tripling of the incidence of breast cancer, colon cancer, and other serious illnesses. We thus have a pressing need to establish how surgical care is currently utilized and distributed, to construct models that would allow us to predict future demands for resources and manpower, and to formulate appropriate policies to meet them.
Send Feedback to: 
