Robert C. Bowman, M.D.
Using PA data from http://depts.washington.edu/uwrhrc/uploads/CHWSWP105.pdf and FPGP data (including osteopathic FPs) from the 2005 OfficeMax version of the AMA Masterfile, the following comparisons can be made regarding rural distributions by state.
Low levels across the board suggest poor support for either PA or FP regarding rural distributions. In some cases distributional training demonstrates advantages, as in Washington State and the MEDEX program. States such as Nebraska demonstrate similar levels across the board indicating a balanced emphasis of distribution. Comparisons of both PA and FPGP to population can also be interesting. Either PAs or FPs should be distributing close to the rural population distribution of the state, if not, some questions should be asked about the policies for the whole state. The numbers of PAs and PAs were also very comparable for the all PA group in 2000 and this 1987 - 1999 group of family physicians, even without percentages.
Yellow cells have 10% greater PA distribution than FPGP. Gray cells have 10% greater distribution for FPGP. PA distributions on the left, FPGP in the middle, and the rural distributions of population by RUCA 2.0 are on the right
| PA | PA1 | PA2 | PA3 | PA4 | FPGP | FP1 | FP2 | FP3 | FP4 | Pop 2 | Pop 3 | Pop 4 | |
| Number | Urban | Large Rural | Small Rural | Isolated Rural | Number | Urban | Large Rural | Small Rural | Isolated Rural | Large Rural | Small Rural | Isolated | |
| AK | 253 | 44.3% | 21.3% | 20.2% | 14.2% | 181 | 59.7% | 12.2% | 19.9% | 8.3% | 22.6% | 15.3% | 11.9% |
| AL | 269 | 85.9% | 6.7% | 4.5% | 3.0% | 559 | 70.5% | 13.6% | 10.7% | 5.2% | 13.7% | 12.0% | 5.9% |
| AR | 56 | 64.3% | 16.1% | 14.3% | 5.4% | 528 | 58.7% | 21.0% | 17.0% | 3.2% | 27.8% | 23.2% | 10.6% |
| AZ | 726 | 76.2% | 12.5% | 8.1% | 3.2% | 739 | 81.6% | 6.6% | 9.7% | 2.0% | 10.4% | 6.0% | 2.6% |
| CA | 3,895 | 92.6% | 3.8% | 2.6% | 1.0% | 4031 | 93.0% | 4.6% | 1.4% | 1.0% | 3.0% | 1.8% | 0.5% |
| CO | 913 | 86.4% | 1.9% | 7.1% | 4.6% | 884 | 78.8% | 6.8% | 9.7% | 4.6% | 2.0% | 7.8% | 5.0% |
| CT | 779 | 97.6% | 1.2% | 0.6% | 0.6% | 235 | 91.1% | 6.8% | 0.0% | 2.1% | 2.7% | 1.5% | 2.2% |
| DC | 185 | 100.0% | 102 | 100.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | |||
| DE | 94 | 93.6% | 6.4% | 137 | 80.3% | 14.6% | 5.1% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 20.4% | 0.6% | ||
| FL | 2,111 | 92.3% | 2.2% | 4.0% | 1.5% | 1873 | 94.8% | 2.8% | 1.9% | 0.6% | 2.2% | 3.9% | 1.7% |
| GA | 1,313 | 77.6% | 13.7% | 5.6% | 3.0% | 1068 | 77.6% | 9.9% | 8.8% | 3.7% | 14.6% | 11.4% | 4.4% |
| HI | 93 | 69.9% | 20.4% | 5.4% | 4.3% | 172 | 63.4% | 29.1% | 4.7% | 2.9% | 18.3% | 4.0% | 5.8% |
| IA | 499 | 50.1% | 12.8% | 21.0% | 16.0% | 674 | 57.1% | 13.6% | 22.3% | 7.0% | 14.5% | 19.2% | 19.1% |
| ID | 212 | 53.8% | 23.1% | 13.7% | 9.4% | 263 | 63.1% | 12.5% | 16.7% | 7.6% | 30.6% | 14.5% | 11.3% |
| IL | 909 | 75.8% | 12.0% | 8.6% | 3.6% | 1732 | 84.6% | 7.9% | 6.8% | 0.7% | 7.3% | 5.2% | 3.3% |
| IN | 277 | 82.3% | 6.1% | 9.0% | 2.5% | 1049 | 74.9% | 14.5% | 9.2% | 1.4% | 13.1% | 11.8% | 5.5% |
| KS | 465 | 50.1% | 26.0% | 11.4% | 12.5% | 525 | 60.0% | 18.7% | 11.8% | 9.5% | 23.8% | 9.9% | 11.1% |
| KY | 519 | 60.9% | 17.7% | 15.2% | 6.2% | 485 | 51.8% | 24.1% | 15.5% | 8.7% | 17.3% | 21.2% | 15.5% |
| LA | 272 | 81.6% | 11.8% | 4.4% | 2.2% | 506 | 79.1% | 13.4% | 6.7% | 0.8% | 13.2% | 12.9% | 5.2% |
| MA | 869 | 92.9% | 2.0% | 4.1% | 1.0% | 573 | 97.4% | 0.9% | 1.2% | 0.5% | 2.7% | 2.6% | 1.9% |
| MD | 1,080 | 95.3% | 3.2% | 0.9% | 0.6% | 479 | 90.2% | 5.4% | 3.5% | 0.8% | 4.0% | 2.2% | 2.2% |
| ME | 380 | 47.9% | 12.6% |