UCSF Fresno doctors are helping on the frontlines of the fight against COVID-19

As we face the COVID-19 pandemic together, UCSF Fresno physicians are at the forefront of the fight to protect public health and care for patients in the central San Joaquin Valley.

UCSF Fresno physicians are evaluating and screening adult, pediatric and pregnant patients for COVID-19 in tents outside of Community Regional Medical Center. Faculty and residents in Internal Medicine and Family and Community Medicine and fellows in Pulmonary and Pulmonary Critical Care are caring for patients who have or are at risk for COVID-19 in the hospital and outpatient clinics.

Even before the arrival of COVD-19, the San Joaquin Valley faced a health workforce shortage to care for patients in an area with concentrated poverty and with some of the highest rates of asthma, obesity, diabetes and heart disease in the state. Most of these are considered underlying conditions that make people more susceptible to the virus. This pandemic could be the breaking point in the health care delivery system. Each week, the numbers of patients infected with COVID-19 are increasing rapidly and showing no sign of slowing in the near future — and at the same time, there is a real risk of a worse health provider shortage for very sick patients because the physicians themselves are at risk of becoming ill with the virus.

Right now, the Valley has just 133 physicians per 100,000 population, compared to the state rate of 222. In addition, 30% of the Valley’s physicians are over age 60 and are expected to retire in this decade. Overall, California will have a shortfall of up to 4,100 primary care providers in 10 years, according to the California Future Health Workforce Commission.

Gov. Newsom’s creation on March 30 of a California Health Corps — a way to add 37,000 health-care workers by enlisting retired providers, those in the process of being licensed in the state and medical and nursing students — is a valiant response to this current health workforce crisis. However, a long-term solution is needed, especially one that addresses the needs of the San Joaquin Valley.

UCSF Fresno was established 45 years ago to address the shortage of physicians in the Valley, and has trained more than 3,000 doctors over that time. A branch campus of UCSF, the Fresno progra continues to be the largest academic physician training program between Sacramento and Los Angeles.

The best predictors of where a physician will practice is where they grew up and where they trained for residency. And it is proven here. Roughly 50% of the physicians trained at UCSF Fresno stay in the Valley. But that’s not nearly enough to address the physician shortfall. Ongoing, increased and reliable funding from the state and federal government is urgently needed to train more medical school students, residents and fellows in the Valley to care for patients in the region. At a time when the Valley needs more physicians in training, there is less federal support for Graduate Medical Education, which effectively has been frozen at 1997 funding levels under a cap on Medicare support for GME.

As this pandemic crisis continues, rest assured UCSF Fresno physicians will work tirelessly for patients and for our community. They will remain on the front lines, already caring for severely ill patients and preparing for the influx of patients that is expected, always providing quality care, leadership and mentorship. They will work closely with the county public health departments and other clinical partners.

UCSF Fresno’s Rais Vohra, MD, and Simon Paul, MD, are leading efforts to contain and mitigate COVID-19 in their roles as public health officers at Fresno and Madera counties.

Our commitment to patients and to the Valley is unwavering. But the fear and anxiety in the community caused by COVID-19 extends to health care providers who, as they are providing care, run the risk of becoming sick themselves. It’s estimated that about 20 percent of U.S. health care workers will become ill. On top of that, they have loved ones at home and the possibility of inadvertently exposing family members to COVID-19 is a reality. Supporting our physicians through this difficult time and ensuring they have the proper personal protective equipment (PPE) are key priorities for us.

Please join us in caring for the caregivers and our Valley community by staying home, washing your hands, practicing social distancing, donating much-needed supplies like surgical and N95 masks and advocating to state and federal legislators for the resources to safeguard and train the physicians needed to care for our diverse and rapidly growing population in the Valley now and in the future.

This story was originally published April 7, 2020 at 12:31 PM.