Utah’s rural counties generally have fewer than one medical doctor per 1,000 people, and some have none at all.
Danielle Pendergrass meets with a patient at Eastern Utah Women’s Health in Price on Wednesday, March 13, 2024.
That makes people less likely to go to the doctor for routine care, said Brady Bradford, health officer for the The problem isn’t unique to Utah, said Marc Watterson, or even to rural areas. Watterson, who directs the state’sAll but five of Utah’s 29 counties have a geographic shortage of primary care physicians for at least part of the county, according to the
Because of that long drive, said Shlisa Hughes, people often don’t get medical care. Hughes, who lives in Green River and works for the Association for Utah Community Health, said that’s even true for her.From her home, it’s a three-hour trip to get a mammogram — an hour to the nearest facility that can do one, an hour for the appointment, and an hour home.
Emery County is one of 18 Utah counties below the state average of three providers per 1,000 residents. Most of the counties below that average are rural, though some have smaller cities and two — Iron and Wasatch — are considered metropolitan because they have at least one city of 50,000 people or more.Even when a county has providers, it can take time to get an appointment.
When she was diagnosed with breast cancer, it took weeks, she said, because she had to wait two weeks for someone to read a mammogram, then another week for the biopsy, and a week for someone to read the biopsy. Five or six weeks passed between her mammogram and her diagnosis, she said, but that was just the process.
The state also works with the U.S. State Department through a visa program that allows people who weren’t born in the United States but did train here to continue working in the country, he said.It’s sometimes harder for rural hospitals and clinics to keep things together financially because they see so many patients who are on Medicaid or Medicare or who are uninsured, he said, and that helps offset some costs.
Transportation is a big issue, Gagon said, because there isn’t any public transit in rural Utah. Some patients will call an ambulance and go to the emergency room, she said, because that’s their only way to get to a provider.
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