It didn t hurt that Shearer s husband works for the U.S. Forest Service. After a physician is found, the biggest job is selling the community, which typically means selling Moscow and Pullman to a spouse, he said. Pullman Memorial participated in recruitment of an ophthalmologist two years ago and a urologist five years ago. It participated in this summer s recruitment of surgeon Kevin Johnson to fill a spot vacated by a retiring general surgeon. PMH is searching for a fifth emergency-room physician after the successful recruitment of its fourth emergency doctor.
Doctor shortages shift with changes in national health care policy.
A few years ago, the Palouse had a shortage of family doctors. Then health maintenance organizations began using family physicians as a port of entry to the health care system and reduced compensation levels for specialists. Today, Moscow and Pullman have a good supply of family physicians, but specialists are harder to recruit. For the Palouse the doctors that are hardest to come by are heart specialists, lung specialists, cancer doctors and internal medicine doctors. Area hospitals now frequently rely on contracted workers who fly in for short periods for staffs of radiologists, ultrasound technicians and emergency room nurses.