Nurse Practitioners Filling Gap From Doctor Shortages

Obamacare set to make it worse

It's 8:15 a.m. on a warm July Wednesday and the parade of patients is already lining up for Mary Fey, a family nurse practitioner on the front lines of health reform in this rural community 100 miles south of Portland.

There's the 32-year-old guy with a Hobo spider bite and high blood pressure, the 61-year-old with a sore shoulder from a tractor accident, the 9-year-old with allergies, the 91-year-old with dementia.

They all come to Fey, the sole primary care provider for nearly 30 miles in this region where doctors are in short supply – and the January launch of Obamacare is expected to make it worse.