The University of Nebraska Medical Center released their 2018 Rural Health Care Workforce Report that measures the progress the state is making dealing with workforce issues in some locations.  Dr. Michael Sitorius is the chairman of Family Medicine at UNMC’s College of Medicine and says real progress has been made in some areas over the past ten years.

Sitorius says while some of those statistics are improving, there are still a number of challenges facing the state.

Sitorius says challenges include nearly one-fifth of physicians in the state are likely to retire soon, 13 counties have no primary physician and 18 counties have no pharmacist.  The report also suggests recommendations that include incentives to health care professionals to practice in rural areas and subsidize telecommunications and other infrastructure to support telehealth.