Narrative Overview

Total number of qualified primary care physicians per 100,000 population.

Sources: Florida Health Charts (2021). “Licensed Physicians per 100,000 Population.” Florida Department of Health. Retrieved from https://flhealthcharts.com. Data Visualization provided by the UWF Haas Center. 

Why does it matter?

According to Healthy People 2030 from the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 1 in 10 Americans do not have health insurance. Without insurance people cannot access timely health care including access to medications. Preventive care and treatment of chronic conditions are not available to them. Proximity to health care is another factor in whether a person receives health care services.

Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Healthy People 2030. 

Data in this area is important because we want to ensure that there are enough health care providers and entry points for our community to be able to receive quality care.

Where are we now?

In this dashboard we see that we do not have enough primary care providers for our community. The data reflects that Escambia has not improved from 2015 and has decreased every year since 2019. Santa Rosa has seen significant growth between 2015 and 2021, but a sharp decline in the year 2022. 

How do we measure it?

The term access to health care means having "the timely use of personal health services to achieve the best health outcome.” It is broken down into four categories. They are coverage, services, timeliness and workforce. Coverage dictates where an individual can actually enter the healthcare system or which doctors, clinics and hospitals a person can use and is based on your insurance. Uninsured people are at a disadvantage in this category.

Services means to have a source of care to receive recommended screening and prevention services such as vaccines and mammograms. Timeliness is the ability to access health care when the need is recognized. Workforce means having capable and qualified providers.

• Primary Care Access: Florida Health Charts (2021). “Licensed Physicians per 100,000 Population.” Florida Department of Health. Retrieved from https://flhealthcharts.com.

What call to action is linked to this indicator?

A lack of accessible health care can be debilitating for individuals or families in the community. Part of the region’s goal is providing health services that are inexpensive and accessible to those that may not have transportation or the means to seek out services on their own.

Organizations such as Healthy Start, make home visits to pregnant mothers, lifting the burden of travel or public transportation. This is only one service offered in Escambia and Santa Rosa Counties. Similar services should be offered to elderly, children and adult residents.