Since Anchor Medical Associates announced it will close its primary care practice in Rhode Island on June 30 — leaving behind about 25,000 patients, including 7,000 children — doctors’ offices have been swamped with calls.
I know, because I’m one of their patients. The Monday after the news broke, I called close to a dozen doctors’ offices. When I introduced myself as an Anchor patient, I was either switched to a line with a pre-recorded message (“To be put on the waiting list, please leave your name, insurance coverage, date of birth…”) or placed on hold, in one case for 20 minutes, or told to leave a message.
None of the offices I called that day were taking new patients. That’s not surprising to Stacy Paterno, executive vice president of the Rhode Island Medical Society.
“We’re in a state of emergency for primary care,’’ Paterno said. “You know I’ve spoken with some large group practices. One waiting list is already over 10,000 people.”
Rhode Island’s doctor shortage isn’t always apparent because of the state’s large number of licensed physicians. Dr. Caroline Richardson found that out when she moved to Rhode Island in 2022 to become chief of family medicine at The Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University. And even she couldn’t find a practice taking new patients.
Richardson led a study released earlier this year that showed that only a fraction of the state’s licensed physicians are practicing primary care. And those doctors are rapidly aging out of the workforce. In Brown’s Family Medicine program, “we maybe get four or five to stay in the state from our training programs a year,’’ Richardson said. “So we’re we’re losing ground. We have lots of people retiring….and it’s getting worse by the day.’’
The doctor shortage is why Anchor Medical’s leaders said they haven’t been able to hire replacements for all their physicians who have retired. And Anchor couldn’t keep up with the rising costs of operating its practice given the state’s low health insurance reimbursement rates.
“You can get paid a lot more just by going and working in Massachusetts or Connecticut,’’ said Howard Dulude, interim president of the Hospital Association of Rhode Island, a trade group. He said Anchor patients who can’t get off waiting lists will end up going to hospital emergency rooms for care they should be getting at a doctor’s office, creating a domino effect. “Emergency Rooms are very expensive,’’he said, “so it’s going to drive costs up.’’
For years, Anchor Medical operated in a way that seemed to defy the trends in medicine. Doctors often spent more than the standard 15-minutes with patients. And many of Anchor’s doctors and support staff had worked together for nearly two decades.
“My medical assistant, Brenda, has been with me for almost 20 years, and she knows the patients as well as I do,’’ Dr. Diane Siedlecki said.
That’s my doctor. She said her assistant, Brenda, knows when someone in their waiting room is seriously ill by spotting the smallest detail that might be off. “She’ll come into my office,’’ she said, “and she’ll say, ‘I don’t like the way she looks. She doesn’t have on her lipstick.’’’
Siedlecki and her staff sustained that connection to their patients during the COVID-19 lockdowns. While other medical offices went remote, Anchor staff continued to see patients in their offices. And at 71, Siedlecki still makes house calls.
“There’s a lot of elderly out there who feel isolated, or in pain; people who are wheelchair bound and they can’t leave their apartment,’’ she said. “Everybody here worries about them.’’
Siedlecki and her colleagues have been reaching out to other primary care offices, urging them to take some of their patients. I finally did find a practice willing to take me. So last week, I said goodbye to my doctor, who is retiring. I asked her what she and her staff might do on their last day.
“We will have a Mary Tyler Moore moment!,’’ Siedlecki said, and laughed. “We’ll walk through the place one more time. All give each other a big hug, say we knew we did the best that we could. We had a great place.”
A place where patients and clinicians felt at home. And by that measure, Anchors’ leaders said, their practice was a success.
Anchor Medical has posted a list of practices that may be accepting new patients on its website. The state Health Department also has a link to practices accepting Anchor patients at health.ri.gov.
