Dive Brief:
- While many states are churning out increased numbers of medical students, few are adding enough residency slots to allow those students to stay within the state.
- Those states with shortages of residency slots end up exporting their medical students to states that have extra slots--typically California and the Northeast.
- States with doctor shortages have an interest in keeping their medical students local, because according to the Association of American Medical Colleges, 68% of physicians who do all their training in one state end up staying and practicing there.
Dive Insight:
The increase in medical students can be attributed to AAMC's call in 2007 for states to grow their number of graduates 30% by 2015.
However, in-state residencies have failed to keep up, and experts note this will have to change if states want to get a return on their investment in medical students. Given that Medicare is capped on the number of residencies it can fund, that leaves states, medical schools and hospitals to find a way to make up the difference.
The issue is not just a matter of numbers, however. States need to consider what specialties they need to fill, and where, to create a pipeline of future physicians that will fit the bill.
Deborah Hall, president of the American Medical Student Association, notes that many states are dealing with more of a maldistribution of physicians than a shortage.
“You can’t guarantee that students will go to a certain place or treat a certain type of people,” she told Kaiser Health News, but states can offer residencies that prepare students to thrive in the most needed specialties and locations, which will impact what and where they practice long term.