General PEDIATRICS

According to the American Board of Pediatrics (the certifying organization for pediatricians), there is one general pediatrician for every 1,304 children in the United States. In Texas, those numbers are one pediatrician for every 3,179 children.19 In the Northeast Texas region, 24 counties do not have a board-certified pediatrician. This means that more than 105,000 Northeast Texas children do not have access to a pediatrician in their county. Of the counties that do have general pediatricians, none are above the national average, and only six are above the state average for general pediatric coverage.

Northeast Texas CHILD POPULATION PER PEDIATRICIAN

Pediatric SUBSPECIALISTS

While the lack of general pediatricians is striking, the scarcity of pediatric subspecialists is even more concerning. Lack of access to pediatric subspecialty care is a common reason for transferring children to hospitals outside of the region. Families must also travel significant distances for outpatient visits and follow-up appointments with subspecialists. For example: A child in Trinity County must travel over 100 miles to reach the nearest pediatric hematologist-oncologist. The time and expense for families in Northeast Texas to care for their children due to lack of pediatric subspecialty care near home creates significant barriers to care.

The American Board of Pediatrics creates driving distance estimates for a variety of pediatric subspecialties. The following is an example of the distances typically traveled to access subspecialty care for adolescent medicine in Northeast Texas:

Driving Distance To Those Currently CERTIFIED IN

Based on data from the Texas Medical Board and the American Board of Pediatrics, Northeast Texas has no pediatric hematology-oncology, developmental-behavioral, emergency medicine, nephrology, rheumatology, child abuse or adolescent medicine subspecialists. 20,21 Those subspecialties that are available are concentrated in just a few Northeast Texas counties.