Move Unmatched Dr. Grads to the “Top of the List” /

Residency Shortage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfYsiJJNHCs

As I watched an episode of “Designated Survivor” a thought came to my head.  Move unmatched doctor graduates to the “Top of the List”.  “President Kirkman” was conducting a town hall meeting with constituents and was asked by a laid off factory worker what the “President” was going to do to help him.  The answer was “…I am going to create a public works program….and anyone in the last 4 years who has lost a job, their names are going to be put at the top of the list for these jobs”. 

 These unmatched doctors are the victims of a system which “shot itself in the foot”.  It allowed too many medical school grads, but reduced the number of residency slots needed to complete the last required step of training for a license.  I have read the sagas of unmatched doctors saying, “If only I had gotten a higher Step II score, maybe I would have matched”.  It is heartbreaking to hear the self recrimination of these unmatched doctors, when they are not the ones at fault.  And to add “insult to injury”, the match process continues to “selectively ignore” the same applicants’ repeated attempts to match, by using computer generated numeric cut points to “reduce” the deluge of applications each residency program is now receiving.

These unmatched doctor grads should be moved to the “top of the list” for residencies, to prevent their permanent loss to Medicine.  It seemed so “obvious in the “Designated Survivor” episode.  That’s what is FAIR.  How can we do that?  Here are some ideas I have brainstormed:

• Utilize each and every accredited residency slot (some are left unfilled)
• Create “emergency resident slots” to already accredited programs (@ least 1 slot for each existing program)
• Create “Transitional Year Programs” with each medical school to place unmatched doctors
• Move unmatched doctors to the “top of the list” in the next year’s match.  Each residency selects 1 unmatched doctor from the previous 5 years unmatched applicants
• Place US citizens first, before any non-citizen applicants
• Offer incentive money with state funds to private hospital corporations to add residencies, as in Florida with HCA Hospitals
• Create positions at VA Hospitals for unmatched doctors to work under supervision of current VA staff doctors
• Activate/Re-Activate a “House Physician” license (as in Florida) for unmatched doctors to work under supervision of hospital staff physicians
• Expand House Physician license to County Health Clinics and VA system
• Expand NRMP to 3^rd tier match to “place” remaining unmatched doctors
• Provide malpractice umbrella coverage to allow unmatched doctors to work under licensed physicians within their office

We have to quit “blaming” the unmatched doctors for their “failings”.  They have passed ALL the CRITERIA necessary to apply through the NRMP.  They deserve a Match!
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