Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-05-30
Or. ROSS v, PATTERSON
On the Scarcity Of Physicians

THE scarcity of physicians. which was
L brought home in an uncomfortable
manner during the war. still remains an
unsolved problem and one for the creation
Of which the American public itself Is some
what to blame according to Or. Ross '.
Patterson, dean of Jefferson Medicat Col'
"The conditions which led up to the
diminishing number of physicians, said
Dr. Patterson. "were apparent long before
the war and that great conflict simply ac.
centuated them. That this same condition
exists today is shown by the fact that IN
this respect things are not now in so sat
isfnctOry II state az before the war.
LESS than twenty years ago no country
in the world had so many PHYSICIANS IN
proportion to its population as the United
States. and we had as many medical schools
as all the rest of the world together. High
water mark in this respect was reached IN
1904. when there were in the United states
about 1875 medical schools with more than
90 600 students attending them
Numbers Were Cut In Half
"When this numerical situation is com.
pared with today it will be seen that both
the number of schools and the number of
students have been cut in half. and the drop
in the number of medical students has
slightly exceeded one half. Today. there
are eighty three or eighty -four MEDICAL
schools in the United States. and of these.
This enormous falling off has been caused
by the very sudden and greatly advanced
requirements for medical study insisted
upon by the best medical colleges and by
the almost equal advance in the matter OF
licenses to practice medicine imposed by
the various State medical boards.
''In 1904 there were only three or four
of the medical colleges which professed to
demand anything from their students In the
| matter of entrance requirements other than
n high school education and there were few
| state medical boards. Those boards which
were then in existence would accept any
! thing in the way of diploma from any
| medical college, no matter what it's stand
| ing among the legitimate members of the
| profession Now, at least two years col
ieyiate education is demanded of the appli =.
cants for matrculation at the best medical
colleges. OF the 100 medical colleges in
existence In 1904, ninety five have persisted
for many and various reasons.
The Making Of n Physician
II sometimes think of a medical college
like ours as a great manufacturing plant,
the product of which every community
yitally needs. On the one side there Is raw
material (the applicants for admissionl in
excess of our facilities, and on the other
side is the demand for our finished product
the highly educated physician) which we
| are unable to meet.
| ''rO illustrate how the raw material ex :
ceeds our facilities for handling it. l may
say that already l have more than 100l
applications for the first year class for mex,
| fall. All of these have had at least two
wears of collegiate training. and many OF
them have obtained college degrees. Out O
this number of applicants we shall prObabl,
he able to accept about 100. The other,
who desire to study medicine at once viii
he Obliged to go elsewhere.
Nov, see how this situation compares
with the demand. In the State of Penn
| sylyania there are about II 600 physicians
| Say that the aver""e professional life of
| doctor IL twenty five years, and this ! be
lrve TO be rather n liberal estimate. Thi
means that these ~ 900 physicians must b.
replaced every twenty five years, or an aver
aye of 800 year.
Supply Far Below Demand
"The medical schools of the State q
Pennsylvania do not graduate 800 student
| wear and their graduates are by no mean
kent nt home. The last graduating class n
Jefferson was scattered through thirty seye
states and about the same proportion wi
| ohtain M to the other medical schools An
nt that, Pennsylvania is one Of the creates
musician supplying States OF the country
"Tnking the entire country. there mr.
about 10000 practlcing physicians an
acting on the same hypothesis as to tn
duration Of professional life. this numbo
must be replaced by the medical college
every twenty five years, or at the rate 9
about COCO a year. Last year the medici
schools Of the country graduated somethin