Saturday, March 16, 2013

Doctor Training Crunch

The Wall Street Journal reports, "More Medical Students Are In the Pipeline, but Too Few Residencies Await Them":
U.S. medical schools are expanding to meet an expected need for more doctors due to the federal health law. With at least 12 new schools opening and existing ones growing, enrollment is on track to produce 5,000 more graduates a year by 2019.

But medical educators are cautioning that those efforts won't do anything to alleviate a doctor shortage unless the number of medical residency positions rises as well. The number of federally funded residencies has been frozen since 1997...
 In other words, don't expect the doctor shortage to be alleviated in the near future.  (Via Dr. Richard Amerling.)