The University was home to more medical school applicants than almost any other school in the country last year, but that doesn’t mean people should expect to spend less time waiting on their doctors, said Owen Farcy, director of pre-health programs for Kaplan Test Prep.

Last year, 280 University undergraduate students applied to medical schools, but a survey of 543 pre-medical students across the country conducted by Kaplan found that only 32 percent plan to become primary care physicians, while 68 percent say they plan to become specialists like cardiologists, neurologists and anesthesiologists.

“The issue the country is facing is the massive shortage of physicians, primarily in the primary care physicians,” Farcy said. “We’re actually short 9,000, and it’s expected to balloon to 65,000 in the next 20 years or so.”

The shortage comes largely from the baby boomer generation. A large part of the physician work force is made of baby boomers, Farcy said. As they age, more retire, so there are fewer physicians. But the population at large will need more doctors as the baby boomers get older because there are more patients, he said.

“One the one hand, it means that patients can expect to spend even less time with their doctors — longer wait times, fewer doctors to see. This is leading us toward a model of health care that is team-based,” Farcy said.

A team-based model means more patients will be seen by nurse practitioners and physician’s assistants, he said.

The medical education community, led by the Association of American Medical Colleges, which represents all 141 accredited U.S. allopathic medical schools, is preparing for the physician shortage by building new medical schools around the country and expanding the number of students admitted to medical school, according to the Kaplan survey.

Farcy said schools are also considering shortening medical school to three years, which could save students $50,000 in tuition.

In a recent interview, Steven Nelson, dean of LSU Health New Orleans, said the school is looking into expanding its school to a three-year accelerated program in Lafayette that is dedicated to primary care. He said they are also considering opening a four-year research medical school at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge or expanding the New Orleans program to Baton Rouge so medical students would complete their basic sciences in New Orleans, but their clinical training would be at Our Lady of the Lake hospital.

“There are several different models we could follow,” Nelson said. “The interest is there, the need is there – it’s just a matter of funding.”

“The issue the country is facing is the massive shortage of physicians, primarily in the primary care physicians.”