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Alaska Value:
Number of family medicine and internal medicine geriatricians and nurse practitioners per 100,000 adults age 65 and older
Alaska Rank:
Number of family medicine and internal medicine geriatricians and nurse practitioners per 100,000 adults age 65 and older
100.3 - 46.5
46.4 - 39.0
38.9 - 32.2
32.1 - 27.6
27.5 - 17.2
US Value: 39.9
Top State(s): Rhode Island: 73.7
Bottom State(s): South Dakota: 17.2
Definition: Number of family medicine and internal medicine geriatricians and nurse practitioners per 100,000 adults age 65 and older
Data Source and Years(s): U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, National Plan and Provider Enumeration System, September 2024
Suggested Citation: America's Health Rankings analysis of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, National Plan and Provider Enumeration System, United Health Foundation, AmericasHealthRankings.org, accessed 2026.
Geriatricians and geriatric nurse practitioners are trained to meet the unique needs of older adults. Care from a geriatrician can be helpful when an older person is coping with multiple chronic conditions or managing multiple medications, as some drugs may have adverse side effects or harmful interactions with each other. Geriatricians are also better suited to treat aging-related diseases, such as dementia, incontinence and osteoporosis.
Treatment by a geriatrician has improved patient outcomes in some scenarios. Compared with older adults receiving standard care, those receiving care in special geriatric units have better functioning at discharge, and rehabilitative services involving geriatricians result in lower nursing home admissions and improved function at follow-up. Geriatricians in outpatient settings provide better medication management than other clinicians.
As the baby boomer generation reaches older adulthood and average lifespans continue to increase, the number of geriatricians needed to meet demand is also rising. The American Geriatrics Society estimates that by 2030, the older adult population in the United States will need more than 12,000 geriatricians. Demand for geriatricians outpaces current projections for the growth of the geriatrician workforce, which may leave thousands of older adults struggling to access care from a specialist.
Older adults living in rural areas may have limited access to geriatric care compared with those in urban areas. In 2018, there were 7,680 full-time geriatricians in urban areas and only 540 in rural areas.
Graduate nursing programs are training nurse practitioners to perform outpatient care for older adults to help address the geriatrician shortfall. Other strategies focus on attracting more professionals to the field of older adult care, including:
Golden, Adam G., Michael A. Silverman, and S. Barry Issenberg. “Addressing the Shortage of Geriatricians: What Medical Educators Can Learn From the Nurse Practitioner Training Model.” Academic Medicine 90, no. 9 (September 2015): 1236–40. https://doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0000000000000822.
Meiboom, Ariadne A., Henk de Vries, Cees M. P. M. Hertogh, and Fedde Scheele. “Why Medical Students Do Not Choose a Career in Geriatrics: A Systematic Review.” BMC Medical Education 15 (June 5, 2015): 101. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-015-0384-4.
Rowe, John W., Terry Fulmer, and Linda Fried. “Preparing for Better Health and Health Care for an Aging Population.” JAMA 316, no. 16 (October 25, 2016): 1643–44. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2016.12335.
Totten, Annette, Susan Carson, Kimberly Peterson, Allison Low, Vivian Christensen, and Arpita Tiwari. “Evidence Brief: Effect of Geriatricians on Outcomes of Inpatient and Outpatient Care.” VA Evidence Synthesis Program Evidence Briefs. Washington, D.C.: Department of Veterans Affairs, Health Services Research & Development Service, June 2012. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK98020/.
Vespa, Jonathan, Lauren Medina, and David M. Armstrong. “Demographic Turning Points for the United States: Population Projections for 2020 to 2060.” Current Population Reports. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Census Bureau, February 2020. https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2020/demo/p25-1144.html.
Warshaw, Gregg A., Elizabeth J. Bragg, David E. Brewer, Karthikeyan Meganathan, and Mona Ho. “The Development of Academic Geriatric Medicine: Progress Toward Preparing the Nation’s Physicians to Care for an Aging Population.” Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 55, no. 12 (2007): 2075–82. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-5415.2007.01519.x.
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