A recent study shows that the aging of baby boomers will do more than merely increase the number of patients - it also will reduce the number of doctors and nurses available to care for them.
<P>Nearly 13% of registered nurses in the U.S. will reach retirement age in five years, says a report by the Center for Health Workforce Studies at the State University of New York [SUNY] at Albany. Almost 44% will turn 65 by 2020.
<P>Half of the country's advanced practice nurses - those with enough training to prescribe drugs, work as anesthetists and deliver babies - will reach retirement age within 15 years. Despite an increase in newly licensed advance practice nurses, supply won't meet demand.
<P>Faced with these trends, the government, health insurers and businesses are testing out possible solutions in a range of areas: electronic medical record systems, new monitoring devices for the home and medical practice redesign.
<P>Health insurance giant Kaiser Permanente recently launched a program that aims to teach its 12,000 doctors how to use an electronic medical records system to streamline their practices.
<P>While the price of these electronic systems is coming down for doctors in small practices, the federal government also is helping.
<P>The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services [CMS] is funding a program that uses contractors nationwide to help 4,000 doctors set up electronic medical records and practice more efficiently.
<P>Aging boomers will bring more cases of chronic illness - a potential growth market when you consider the shortage of medical help.
<P>Just as baby boomers are aging and starting to consume a disproportionate share of health services, many doctors and nurses themselves are boomers and are retiring and working fewer hours!
<P>Doctors are more likely to be 55, or older than the U.S. work force as a whole. And older doctors work fewer hours than younger ones. About 30% of doctors are over 54 today, vs. 14% of the overall work force.
<P>It takes a long time to educate and train a physician. So you're not going to see a lot of younger physicians turning up. Physicians are generally older than average. Half of physicians are 45 and older; in the civilian labor force, only 37% are over 45. In addition, the number of new geriatricians is declining.
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