General Practitioners in the USA, question

I've compared practice size of both GPs in the USA and The Netherlands. Ballpark figure around 3,000 individuals per GP in the USA, 2,100 in the NL. (accuracy?)

As for NL, a lot can be characterized with 'they have plenty of patients anyway' and in a way don't have to work so hard to please the patient/get patients to generate income. Often, they have nowhere else to go ...

How is that in the USA ? I had assumed it would be different, but by the numbers they do have enough patients ...

Belgium is different. Small practices.

I've compared practice size of both GPs in the USA and The Netherlands. Ballpark figure around 3,000 individuals per GP in the USA, 2,100 in the NL. (accuracy?)

 

As for NL, a lot can be characterized with 'they have plenty of patients anyway' and in a way don't have to work so hard to please the patient/get patients to generate income. Often, they have nowhere else to go ...

 

How is that in the USA ? I had assumed it would be different, but by the numbers they do have enough patients ...

 

Belgium is different. Small practices.

This source (https://www.statista.com/topics/1244/physicians/) says about 3500.  I'm willing to believe that.

GPs are saturated in the US.  They have lots of patients but what do you mean, 'they have plenty of patients anyway'?  I'm not sure I follow.

I would say that California is packed with physicians AND people, and since visits only last for about 15 minutes, there's always another patient waiting. I would imagine that really good doctors are found out by word of mouth. You can't trust Yelp to find a good doctor - at least I haven't.

The trouble is in finding someone good that is also benzo-wise. That might as well be a needle in a haystack, and none of the doctors I've seen (and I've seen many) have really acknowledged benzos as being a real problem.

I've compared practice size of both GPs in the USA and The Netherlands. Ballpark figure around 3,000 individuals per GP in the USA, 2,100 in the NL. (accuracy?)

 

As for NL, a lot can be characterized with 'they have plenty of patients anyway' and in a way don't have to work so hard to please the patient/get patients to generate income. Often, they have nowhere else to go ...

 

How is that in the USA ? I had assumed it would be different, but by the numbers they do have enough patients ...

 

Belgium is different. Small practices.

 

This source (https://www.statista.com/topics/1244/physicians/) says about 3500.  I'm willing to believe that.

 

GPs are saturated in the US.  They have lots of patients but what do you mean, 'they have plenty of patients anyway'?  I'm not sure I follow.

If I compare the Dutch situation with the situation in Belgium ... One sources states about 1,000 patients per GP. Smaller, anyway.

In Belgium everyone can visit a specialist without consulting a GP. In general, doctors in Belgium have to work to get their income/patients. Going the extra mile.

In NL it can be close to impossible to switch GPs at times, depending on the place. Often, it's one big trade in patients between GPs ... very difficult or impossible to get a new GP in some towns /cities. In many cities, there are informal or formal arrangements between GPs not to accept patients from each other, which is against the law. There is more to it like rigid gatekeeping, trying to keep it brief. The underlying attitude tends to be (somewhat or worse!) paternalistic.

That's basically what I mean. I know the number of patients per GP does not tell the whole story ... What's the attitude/practice in the USA ?

I've compared practice size of both GPs in the USA and The Netherlands. Ballpark figure around 3,000 individuals per GP in the USA, 2,100 in the NL. (accuracy?)

 

As for NL, a lot can be characterized with 'they have plenty of patients anyway' and in a way don't have to work so hard to please the patient/get patients to generate income. Often, they have nowhere else to go ...

 

How is that in the USA ? I had assumed it would be different, but by the numbers they do have enough patients ...

 

Belgium is different. Small practices.

 

This source (https://www.statista.com/topics/1244/physicians/) says about 3500.  I'm willing to believe that.

 

GPs are saturated in the US.  They have lots of patients but what do you mean, 'they have plenty of patients anyway'?  I'm not sure I follow.

 

If I compare the Dutch situation with the situation in Belgium ... One sources states about 1,000 patients per GP. Smaller, anyway.

In Belgium everyone can visit a specialist without consulting a GP. In general, doctors in Belgium have to work to get their income/patients. Going the extra mile.

 

In NL it can be close to impossible to switch GPs at times, depending on the place. Often, it's one big trade in patients between GPs ... very difficult or impossible to get a new GP in some towns /cities. In many cities, there are informal or formal arrangements between GPs not to accept patients from each other, which is against the law.

 

That's basically what I mean. I know the number of patients per GP does not tell the whole story ... What's the attitude/practice in the USA ?

I see.  It's a little different in the US compared to NL.  Yes, GPs don't have a problem finding patients and they make plenty of money (not as much as specialists but still, plenty).  Patients may switch their doctor depending on their insurance but they usually have the choice of which doctor they want to see as long as they're "in network" meaning, the doctor they want to see accepts that insurance company's reimbursements.  Different insurance plans have different networks of doctors and different rules about seeing GPs and specialists.  HMOs (health maintenance organization) generally make you go through your GP for any specialist treatment while a PPO (preferred provider organization) may allow you to see a specialist without a referral from your GP.  The population here has strong preference for their doctors and generally view interfering with their ability to see them as extremely negative.  When politicians talk about insurance policy, many people get concerned about not being able to keep their doctor.  There are other types of insurance plans with different rules and different networks.  It's a complicated mess.