States ramp up efforts to keep residents

Roughly half of all physicians opt to stay and practice in the state where they received residency training.

By Myrle Croasdale, AMNews staff. Nov. 20, 2006.

Fearful of the impact physician shortages could have on their citizens' health, a number of states are looking to keep more of the medical residents they train.

Utah educators are hiring residents with ties to the state, and in October Pennsylvania's governor sent a letter asking residents to stay after graduation. And a new Michigan program may be one of the most ambitious efforts yet to keep medical residents in state.

The Michigan Health Council this fall began developing a marketing campaign to encourage more residents to stay after graduation. The council is trying to raise at least $30,000 to sponsor activities to give young physicians a better idea of what Michigan has to offer.

Retaining more residents, said the health council's president, Anne Rosewarne, is one cost-effective way to begin meeting the need for more doctors. Michigan expects to be short 6,000 physicians by 2020, according to a study the Michigan State Medical Society commissioned. Nationally, work-force experts predict a shortage of 85,000 to 200,000 physicians by 2020.

The looming physician shortage has prompted some states to become more active in retaining residents because one of the strongest predictors of where physicians will practice is where they did their residency, researchers have found.

According to the Center for Workforce Studies at the Assn. of American Medical Colleges, of the physicians who trained in Michigan, 46.1% are practicing in the state. On average, states keep 47.6% of residents they train, according to the AAMC.