The Southwest's Primary Care Shortage

A population group, geographic area, or facility where residents have diminished access to basic medical care because there are too few primary care physicians relative to the population size of that setting can be designated a primary care health professional shortage area (HPSA) by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).  As of December 31, 2021, HRSA data showed that more than 86.4 million Americans lived in primary care HPSAs.  The four-state Southwest region was home to nearly 13.2 million people who lived in a primary care HPSA.  The HRSA estimates that to eliminate this primary care shortage, Southwest HPSAs would need over 2,200 more primary care physicians.  As such, the Southwestern U.S. accounted for about 14.6% of the national shortage of primary care physicians.  A closer review of 12/31/21 HRSA data reveals the following about the Southwest's primary care shortage:

The Southwest's Primary Care Shortage

State	(1) HPSAs	(2) Population	(3) Shortage
AZ	238	3,185,244	653
NM	108	1,194,945	278
OK	185	1,416,044	289
TX	429	7,381,169	991
Region	960	13,177,402	2,211
U.S.	7,613	86,473,101	15,184

(1) Designated Geographic, Population Group and Facility HPSAs with a primary care shortage

(2) Population of designated HPSAs

(3) Primary Care practitioners needed to remove HPSA Designation

Source:  Designated HPSA Quarterly Summary, 12/31/21 (HRSA)