Those who think you can snap your fingers and produce more doctors domestically to solve the physician shortage should be able to see from this report from the American Hospital Association that producing an extra 150,000 doctors is a gargantuan task:
“First-year enrollment in U.S. medical schools rose by 2% this year to nearly 18,400 students, according to data released today by the Association of American Medical Colleges. Four new medical schools – FIU Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, The Commonwealth Medical College, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Paul L. Foster School of Medicine, and the University of Central Florida College of Medicine – seated their first entering classes, accounting for half of the enrollment increase. Also, 12 existing schools expanded their 2009 class size by 7% or more. In addition to enrollment growth, the association said more Medicare-supported training positions for medical residents are needed to avert an expected shortage of 124,000 -159,000 physicians by 2025. Like the AAMC, the AHA supports the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act (S. 973/H.R. 2251), which would increase the number of Medicare-supported residency positions by 15%, about 15,000 slots. In related news, a study in the Oct. 21 Journal of the American Medical Association shows that the future physician workforce may be younger but fewer in number than previously projected, based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau.”
So the American medical education community has been successful in increasing graduates by about 500. That’s better than nothing. But it won’t get close to filling those extra 15,000 residency slots called for under the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act.