Seven schools recently applied for accreditation with the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), indicative of a burgeoning trend in medical education that may contribute to even more of a bottleneck for students seeking residency positions.
On top of the six schools that recently applied for accreditation, another four schools had their first graduating classes last year, and an additional 11 schools will graduate their first classes between 2014-2018: That’s a total of 15 new schools adding to the pool of students working toward residency slots. Today, there are 141 accredited medical schools.
A few factors contribute to the current bottleneck, starting with a predicted doctor shortage. Workforce experts predict the United States will face a shortage of 62,900 physicians in 2015. In response, medical schools began to increase their class sizes, followed by new medical schools opening.
In 2005, an increase of 15 percent in U.S. medical school enrollment was estimated as necessary to achieve an adequate number of graduates who could meet the nation’s growing health care needs, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Council on Graduate Medical Education.
At the same time, there has not been a proportional increase in the number of available residency positions, creating the bottleneck felt by medical students across the country. More than 500 U.S. medical graduates didn’t match into a residency in 2013, double the amount from 2012.
As a result, fourth year medical students are applying for more residency choices in an atmosphere that’s even more competitive than in years past.
Part of the solution lies in protecting federal funding for residency programs since cuts to physician training programs will exacerbate the physician shortage. The AMA’s Save GME campaign calls on Congress to retain federal funding for graduate medical education (GME). Email your members of Congress today.
The 2014 National Residency Matching Program will culminate the week of March 17, when students will find out whether and where they’ve matched.
