Help Create the Tsunami of
Outrage / Residency Shortage
My last blog delineated the problems in bringing the
Residency Shortage to the Nation’s attention.
No “one” person can solve this crisis, it involves too many
variables: ACGME accrediting, Medicare
funding, and states legislation to “preserve” unmatched doctors. My solution was to create a “Tsunami of
Outrage” to bring the Residency Shortage to “the table”.
This blog was first published on Jan. 31, 2017 . To use “wave” terminology, it began with a
“ripple” of readers. In 5 months, the
readership has increased to a small “wave”, reaching 232 readers during the
first week of July. Here are the
statistics I am going to use to set a goal for dissemination and education
about the Residency Shortage via the “NoMatchMDs” blog:
2017
- US Population – 321 million
- Total Professionally Active Physicians in US – 923,308
- US Congress – 535 Representatives and Senators
- Combination of (MDs + Congressmen = 923,843) - about 1 million
- 200 million registered voters in US
Let’s visualize what it would take to reach a goal of 1
million readers of this blog, the total number of MDs and Legislators
combined. It is only through knowledge
of the Residency Shortage that we can work toward a timely solution. Here are my calculations. If those 232 readers from the first week in
July were to contact only 6 doctors or legislators EACH, and each of those
contacts would make 6 contacts of their own, etc., etc.:
232 X 6 = 1,392
1,392 X 6 = 8,352
8,352 X 6 = 50,112
50,112 X 6 = 300,672
300,672 X 6 = 1,804,032
With only 5 cycles of contact, over 1.8 million people would
have been reached with this information.
This is what it would take, 6 doctor/legislator contacts by each of 232
blog readers to theoretically contact “every” doctor and congressman in the US
This same story could extend to the education of the voting
public. If this process continued for 8
cycles, the total number contacted would rise to 390 million, almost twice the
number of contacts than registered voters!
If you have followed this blog and find the cause of the
Residency Shortage “compelling”, we cannot just let the message end with each
one of us. Knowledge without action is
useless. This “story” is too complex to
explain it in “one sentence”. The
circumstances are many and varied.
Education of this travesty leading to a solution is the one and only
goal of this blog.
At the end of each prior blog, I have asked the
readers/listeners to contact the doctors and legislators in their local area to
create action for the Residency Shortage.
Today, I am going to ask each of you to personally contact 6 doctors
+/or legislators that you know. Provide
the link to this blog, “NoMatchMDs.blogspot”, and request that they in turn
contact 6 more of their colleagues/legislators, etc., etc. Tell them they can listen to this blog on
their cell phones while commuting. Just
click on the YOUTUBE link with each blog.
Ask them to keep this “wave” going, with hopes that we will reach our
goal of 1 million doctors + legislators.
Wouldn’t it be unbelievable if the cycle went 8 rounds and reached all
200 million registered voters?? It goes
without saying that any “sharing” you may include in all your social media
would be an added bonus.
So there we have it, a measurable goal. Make 6 contacts each, ask your contacts to do
the same and continue the cycle, and reach more than 1 million doctors and
legislators in the US
www.NoMatchMDs.blogspot.com
www.NoMatchMDs.blogspot.com
I think that the medical establishment, ACGME, AHA, AMA, and other components created this problem. After all, congress and state medical boards delegated substantial authority to the ACGME over the GME by allocating medicare fund and licensing doctors, respictively, only to residency programs accredited by the ACGME. The medical establishment proved that it cannot police itself. I am not a lawyer, but I believe that the judicial review has a role to play here. The state medical licensure is a form of regulation and therefore is subject to the judicial review.
ReplyDeleteI think that experienced lawyers can build strong class-action case on behalf of the unmatched doctors who are for all intensive purposes are unemployed doctors for lack of licensure against the state medical boards. The state medical boards should not be able to require for licensure something doesn't exist without alternative. The ACGME accredited training positions don't exist for the unmatched doctors. The court would evaluate the cost benefit analysis, the alternative and other factors involved in the regulation. I think that the large number of unemployed doctors is high cost for the regulation while there is a good proven alternative like the Missouri law of assistant physician. The court may very well order the state medical boards to do what Missouri did volunteerilly. Furthermore, if physician assistant and even nurse practitioner can practice, I don't know why not unmatched doctor.