Hospitals increasingly funding their own radiology residency positions
Hospitals are increasingly funding their own radiology residency positions, rather than waiting for the government to help, according to a report from Medscape published Wednesday.
By now we’re all familiar with the country’s radiologist shortage, but less so with ways to address this deficit. Some have suggested increasing the number of Medicare-funded graduate medical education slots. However, this requires convincing Congress to intervene.
Others have opted to pay for more slots themselves, the news outlet noted.
“My own radiology department at the Ochsner Clinic has decided to self-fund two additional positions in recent years, and I believe this is an increasing trend in many hospitals,” James M. Milburn, MD, vice-chair of the Ochsner Health Department of Radiology in New Orleans, told Medscape. “Because so many of our faculty hires arise from our own residencies, departments should consider [funding] resident positions as a good way to improve the future recruitment pool.”
Funding a slot starts at one resident salary (about $67,400 on average, according to Medscape), plus benefits. This cost would continue for about four years, amounting to about $400,000 per position, Milburn estimated.
Hospitals have not tried this self-funded approach in the past because there is not much incentive, Carolyn Meltzer, MD, a neuroradiologist and dean of the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, Los Angeles, added. That’s because they can’t count on residents staying once they complete the program. Some might try offering a subspecialty opportunity in the final year or an early fellowship. But ultimately, “you can’t force someone to hold to employment just because they trained at your institution.”
You can read more of the report from Medscape here:
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.