Statistics are an important tool but rarely the whole picture.
There’s no better reminder of this than the announcement Medscape ranked West Virginia the third worst state for doctors.
According to Medscape’s analysis, “West Virginia presents numerous challenges for doctors. The state ranks in the bottom two quintiles for most measures, including compensation, tax burden, malpractice payouts, adverse actions against doctors, competition and [medical] resident retention. … last in public health and had the second highest level of medical liability premium increases in 2021 …”
Local medical professionals were quick to say that while Medscape makes several valid critiques, it fails to paint a full picture of what it means to work in health care in West Virginia.
Dr. Shane Prettyman summed up Medscape’s ranking nicely: “All these things are very stereotypical. … The big money, the metropolitan places are going to be the great places.”
Some of the metrics do seem to unfairly disadvantage states like West Virginia. While West Virginia has a lower median salary than No. 1 Idaho, West Virginia also has a cost of living almost 10% below the national average; Idaho’s is 2% above.
Dr. Susan Cappelle noted one of the metrics counting against a state, arguably unfairly, is patients’ poor health. As she said, “As physicians, that is what we have trained to do — take care of these patients; and in so doing, hopefully, improve their lives.”
Medscape also considers physician density, which is going to be lower in states with smaller, far-flung communities, and the vague “livability,” which probably looks at metropolitan standards like public transportation and entertainment opportunities. While those are areas where West Virginia can improve, most of the people who come here, and stay here, are looking for the intimacy of small towns, or at least escape the suffocating bustle of big cities, and easy access to nature.
One common theme was West Virginia’s “Made in the Mountain State” credentials: WVU’s medical school trains a lot of future doctors who stay in West Virginia, and many West Virginia natives do their residencies elsewhere before coming back. As Dr. Christopher Edwards said, “The large majority of us basically came home to work in a state we grew up in.”
Morgantown is, admittedly, a health care oasis in a state where most people have to drive an hour or more to reach a major medical center or receive specialty care. But that situation is improving statewide as our hospital systems branch out into smaller communities, creating opportunities to attract more physicians and specialists and to provide better health care.
Don’t get us wrong, there are plenty of ways West Virginia can improve — from fewer lawsuits to better starting pay — but the Mountain State has plenty to offer medical professionals. So Medscape, and future doctors, shouldn’t count us out.
