“It's grueling, the drive does get grueling and not everyone has that option to do it. Olson says she was grateful to be able to do it. That meant daily drives that could take over three hours total. They research it, they treat it, that's all they do.” “I really wanted to go to somebody who only treats cancer.
“My doctor that diagnosed me was a local doctor in Redlands, and I've had very good care there, but they don't treat cancer,” Olson says. When Olson was diagnosed with uterine cancer, she decided to seek specialty care at Los Angeles-based City of Hope rather than a local treatment center. The shortage of doctors in the Inland Empire has all kinds of consequences – long wait times, a lack of certain specialties in this area, and for some, an inability to access healthcare at all.įor Karen Olson, it meant leaving San Bernardino County to find the care she needed. “The last would be the aging of the population with the Baby Boomers getting into their 60's.” So it's a struggle for our area.”Īnd then, there’s the problem of retirement. “It's a tough road to hoe, because it takes a lot of training and docs can make more on the coast than they can make here. That makes training local doctors and having them stay in this region pretty difficult. Doctors head to the coast to make a higher salary than they can in the Inland Empire. “Now that increases the demand for healthcare and therefore for doctors in this area.”Īnother factor driving the shortage is the lure of Los Angeles and Orange counties. “It went from 28.8% of the population to 12.4% of the population,” Husing says. In 2012 there were about 750,000 people in the Inland Empire without health insurance – in 2016, that number dropped to about 330,000. According to Husing, there are three main factors behind the shortage. “It’s a real struggle for our area,” says John Husing, an Inland Empire economist. In 2017, there were only 39 physicians per 100,000 residents, far below the recommended 70 doctors per 100,000 people. The region has the lowest physician to resident ratio in all of California. That makes it one of California’s biggest public health problems – and one that will hit the Inland Empire especially hard. Today, healthcare in the Inland Empire is facing another train wreck.Īccording to a recent report out of UC San Francisco, the entire state will likely face a severe shortage of primary care clinicians in the next 15 years. We have a train wreck, and then we decide we need a hospital.” “The need has been dealt with on a reactive basis as opposed to looking ahead. “Pomona's hospital, Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center, was slowly but surely created,” Blackstock says.īlackstock says the 1899 train wreck was the beginning of a pattern: the region’s healthcare needs have always outstripped the supply. Maybe one little doctor, but when you have an emergency or you have situations, we need to have a hospital.” “So, people in for instance Pomona decided well, wait a minute, we need to have something here. And the incident showed the drastic lack of healthcare services in the burgeoning Inland Empire. Injured passengers were now stuck in Pomona, 30 miles away from Los Angeles. “And then you have a situation where the train was wrecked.” “The bad news was, the nearest hospital was in Los Angeles,” says Inland Empire historian Joe Blackstock. It crossed the hills and reached the Inland Empire when suddenly, it derailed.įive people were killed, and many more injured. On Christmas Eve in 1899, the Santa Fe train was coming into town.
KVCR’s Benjamin Purper has part one of our five-part series on the doctor shortage. Your Inland Empire 66ers tickets will arrive on time for the event, your tickets will be authentic, and your tickets will be together (if ordered together) – or twice your money back!Īny questions or comments regarding your Inland Empire 66ers VIP box seat tickets? Speak to a VIPBoxSeats.KVCR is taking an in-depth look into the physician shortage plaguing California – and it’s especially bad in the Inland Empire. 100% Inland Empire 66ers Ticket Guarantee:Īll tickets to Inland Empire 66ers events are backed by an outstanding 100% money-back guarantee. Avoid crowds and lineups with personal food and beverage services, separate washrooms, and even VIP parking! Live events will never be the same again once you've experienced one from a VIP box seat! Experience Inland Empire 66ers in comfort and style with box seat tickets! From your private seating area, you can appreciate Inland Empire 66ers with the best view of the action. Now you can be the star of the show with.