Arkansas, like other states, faces a shortage of physicians, nurses, and other healthcare providers. Primary care physician shortages in particular have been associated with higher rates of preventable emergency department visits. Conversely, greater primary care physician supply has been associated with earlier diagnosis of disease, lower mortality, and lower costs.
ACHI has developed an interactive dashboard to examine the primary care physician workforce in Arkansas. The dynamic tool, based on 2019 and 2020 data, displays rates of active primary care physicians — i.e., primary care physicians actively practicing, as evidenced by claims data — per 10,000 residents, both statewide and by county. The dashboard also provides information on physician activity status (full-time, part-time), physician demographics, and the mix of payer types among physicians’ patients.
Key findings based on 2020 data include:
- There were 2,778 active primary care physicians in Arkansas in 2020. There were 9.2 active primary care physicians, including 6 full-time primary care physicians, per 10,000 Arkansans in that year.
- The data suggest active primary care physicians working less than full-time are crucial to ensuring primary care access. There were 2,958 full-time primary care physician equivalents statewide in Arkansas in 2020, or 9.8 per 10,000 people. This compares to 1,813 primary care physicians actively practicing on a full-time basis in 2020, with 6 full-time primary care physicians per 10,000 people.
- The increasing age of the full-time primary care physician workforce is concerning, with 27% of full-time primary care physicians in Arkansas being 60 or older and early career primary care physicians who are under 45 being more likely to practice less than full time compared to other age categories. This could become a particularly acute challenge for some rural counties which are served by only one or two full-time primary care physicians.
- There were disparities in active primary care physicians by sex, with males representing more than two-thirds (68%) and females representing less than one-third (32%) of active primary care physicians in 2020. The disparity among active primary care physicians by sex narrowed in lower age ranges, suggesting increases in the primary care physician workforce pipeline among females. However, among full-time primary care physicians, wider disparities by sex were observed even among younger physicians, suggesting a preference among younger female physicians for part-time work.
- Although Black and Hispanic Arkansans represent 14.9% and 8.5% of the state’s population, respectively, they only represent 6% and 2.5%, respectively, of the active primary care physician workforce in Arkansas. In counties with large minority communities, cultural and linguistic access barriers could persist without intentional and sustained efforts to diversify the physician workforce.
This is the first time that Arkansas’s primary care physician workforce has been profiled in this way. The dashboard is intended to help characterize the state’s healthcare workforce to inform clinical leaders and policymakers regarding decisions that impact provider access for Arkansas communities.
See more information about the healthcare workforce in Arkansas on our topic page.
About the Data
Data used for this dashboard were obtained from the Arkansas State Medical Board’s licensure files and enrollment, provider, and health insurance claims files from the Arkansas Healthcare Transparency Initiative’s All-Payer Claims Database (APCD).
This work is made possible with funding from the federal Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and support from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. ACHI’s full report on the primary care physician workforce in Arkansas is also available.