Rural GI Specialists Performed More Basic Procedures in 2024
The data confirms that rural gastroenterologists handle higher volumes of general work despite significant workforce disparities.
Updated on Oct. 14, 2026 in Nursing Jobs
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In 2024, researchers found that rural gastroenterologists completed 37% more general endoscopies per physician than their urban counterparts. This procedural trend emerged as the rural gastroenterologist workforce grew by only 8% between 2013 and 2024, compared to an 18% increase in urban markets.
Why it matters
The findings highlight a widening gap in specialized care access, with rural providers focusing on general screenings while urban facilities maintain higher concentrations of advanced procedures.
Rural gastroenterologists performed 308 general endoscopies per physician in 2024, outperforming the urban rate of 225. While 20% of the U.S. population lives in rural areas, only 7.7% of all gastroenterologists practice there.
The players
CMS
The federal agency overseeing national healthcare programs that serves as a primary source for physician utilization and billing data.
National Plan and Provider Enumeration System
The national registry that tracks provider identification and practice locations across the U.S. healthcare system.
The details
The analysis, which spanned all 50 states and Washington, D.C., across 143,670 physician-year observations, indicates a clear shift in practice scope. Rural physicians prioritize general endoscopy, with advanced procedures making up 2.2% of their volume, compared to 4.1% for urban peers. This concentration of general tasks in rural settings reflects a departure from the procedural mix found in higher-density metropolitan medical centers.
Timeline
2013-2024: The longitudinal period used to track workforce growth and procedural trends.
2024: The year for which the comparative procedural volume analysis was conducted.
Market Landscape
This analysis of CMS longitudinal procedural data provides a baseline for evaluating the effectiveness of rural health workforce incentives versus urban-focused medical expansion. It updates previous procedural volume benchmarks by documenting the persistent disparity between rural and urban physician output.
Practice operators should factor these rural service gaps into future recruitment and capacity planning. The data suggests that rural facilities must balance higher general procedure demand with a limited specialist pipeline.
The takeaway
Rural practice operators should monitor whether current procedural volume trends persist or if workforce shortages force a change in service offerings. Track physician-to-patient ratios in your local service area as a key metric for determining future diagnostic service capacity.
Further reading
For more on shifts in healthcare labor, review the latest trends in Nursing Jobs.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Healio.
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