NORTH MASON COUNTY — Panic hit Shirley Jacobs earlier this year when she abruptly lost her longtime primary care provider. The 88-year-old, who lives in a cozy lakeside home near Belfair, received anti-inflammatory prescriptions that had to be refilled. She had other off-and-on medical needs.
Jacobs worried she’d have to go to the hospital if she couldn’t find a new provider soon and needed urgent care — something she’s done before. “It was a blow to everyone,” Jacobs said. “None of us had a doctor.
I couldn’t get anyone to tell me why he left.” She needed a solution fast. One was already on its way.
Jacobs’ search for a new primary care physician is one that’s become more common throughout Washington, especially in more rural areas like in Kitsap and Mason counties. In other parts of the U.S.
, the looming physician shortage — ranging from pediatricians to cardiologists — has become an urgent public health crisis, the president of the American Medical Association said in October . The hole has meant it’s become harder for Washingtonians to seek various types of primary and specialty care — but it’s also contributed to added pressure on hospital emergency departments, which have been under an extreme amount of stress the past several years. Some parts of the state have responded to growing emergency department concerns by brainstorming novel solutions.
One includes a mobile health team of medical and resource providers in north Mason County, u.