How the Medical Residency Shortage began, its unintended consequences, and what we have to do to FIX IT...
Blog Archive
Tuesday, August 28, 2018
Creative Solutions, State by State
Creative Solutions, State by State
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m6LwTpJZnQ
State by State licensing to retain
these “untrained” doctors is quite a challenge.It requires the interest and enthusiasm of state medical societies to
bring proposed legislation to their state legislatures. They have to proceed
through the lengthy legislative process to enact changes to their existing
licensing statutes. Imagine this process for each of the 50 states!
What are the numbers
we are talking about for unmatched doctor grads? (LINK)
More
than 8,640 unmatched doctors on March
18, 2016
More
than 40,000 unmatched doctors over the last 5 years
Unmatched doctor
grads ESTIMATE by State for 2016 ?
California:1,037 unmatched doctors (based on % of
National Population)
Florida:536““
New
York:527““
Texas:734““
These unmatched doctor graduates are fully qualified and
have met all the requirements set by the National Resident Matching Program
(NRMP) to participate in the national “Match”.They have obtained their MD degrees and passed all required exams, such
as USMLE parts Step I and Step II.There
are just not enoughresidencyslots available to meet the increased demand. In order to
“preserve” these unmatched doctors until the supply of residency slots
increases, each State would have to pass new legislation.Medical licensure is legislated state by
state.This legislation would allow
these grads to work “under supervision” in “qualified settings” (Essentially, residency allows work “under supervision”
in a qualified program).If given the
opportunity for meaningful work (and service to the community!), these
unmatched grads could re-apply for residency as the numbers of residency slots
increase.The result:preservation of fully qualified doctors while
addressing the impending doctor shortage in the next decade.
Three states have passed this legislation so far, Arkansas,
Kansas, and Missouri.“Arkansas Graduate Registered Physician Act”
applies to an “individual who is a resident
of Arkansas…”Kansas
passed a special license which applies to graduates
of the University of Kansas School of Medicine.Missouri passed
legislation for “Assistant Physician” which is open to US residents.State by state legislation could generate its
own set of problems while trying to ameliorate this crisis situation.Arkansas
and Kansas have “prevented” a
huge influx of desperate unmatched doctors flocking into their states by
gearing legislation for their own state residents/graduates.Missouri
could be the “recipient” of this influx.Just think of all the time, effort, and money which this state by state
legislation would entail!
Why haven’t the AMA
and ACGME (Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education) acted to
correct this travesty on a National level??
Good question, the answer is: because the American Medical Union (AMA) has conflect of interest. Its main goal is to protect the standards of living for its own members. When you increase the residency positions you increase the practicing doctors in the market. While that would improve the patient care it would lower the salaries of the current members of the AMA and that what the AMA is reluctant to support.
Good question, the answer is: because the American Medical Union (AMA) has conflect of interest. Its main goal is to protect the standards of living for its own members. When you increase the residency positions you increase the practicing doctors in the market. While that would improve the patient care it would lower the salaries of the current members of the AMA and that what the AMA is reluctant to support.
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