Doctors voting with their feet
Monday, May 22, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Crain’s…
According to [Jerry Kruse, dean of SIU’s School of Medicine], the percentage of his school’s grads who choose to complete residencies in Illinois has plummeted to 21 percent this year—the lowest in school history. The share has decreased 9 percentage points each year since 2014. For decades before that, the percentage of SIU’s roughly 70 annual med school graduates who stayed always hovered between 40 and 45 percent.
Meanwhile, across the four campuses of U of I’s College of Medicine, which include its flagship on Chicago’s West Side, just 28 percent of this year’s graduates are staying in Illinois for their residencies. That’s down from nearly 37 percent last year.
Dimitri Azar, the school’s dean, isn’t ready to say that it’s more than a blip. U of I’s trend line hasn’t gone straight down, as SIU’s has. The percentage of U of I grads who remained in Illinois for their training was 33 in 2015, 41 in 2014 and nearly 34 in 2013. Furthermore, Azar says, students choose their destinations primarily based on the quality of the program, not the quality of the state’s finances.
Kruse, however, ties the exodus directly to the budget fight between Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democrats who control the General Assembly. “Nothing has changed much over this period except the budget impasse and the atmosphere it’s created,” Kruse says. “Young doctors read about it in the papers every day and suddenly there’s a fair amount of uncertainty about the future.” Illinois has not had a permanent budget since January 2015.
Regardless, private medical schools in the area—which don’t rely on state funding—aren’t seeing the same declines. At Loyola University’s Stritch School of Medicine, the share of 2017 grads staying in Illinois is 39 percent; it was 40 percent last year and 39 percent in 2015. And at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine, the percentage of new grads who will complete residencies in Illinois reached a five-year high of 44 percent this year.
- Anonymous - Monday, May 22, 17 @ 9:37 am:
This touches on the broader question: “Unless I MUST stay, why would I stay in Illinois?
- Vote Quimby! - Monday, May 22, 17 @ 9:50 am:
“Young doctors read about it in the papers every day”
Must not be the Tribune they’re thumbing through… /s
- Amalia - Monday, May 22, 17 @ 9:59 am:
This story needs more exploration/explanation. The public universities are taking more students from other countries and states. Does that factor in because students head home? Quality is also an issue. If you are a U. of I Med School student, you may, or may not get the flagship site. This is a big issue. The training at the flagship site is better than that at the other locations, including with better facilities. Is the figure “chose to remain” exactly that? Are some students not chosen to remain? The difference between the public Med School figures and the private Med School figures is worth more exploration. The best medical school in that bunch by all the ratings….Feinberg….keeps the highest percentage of grads in residencies in Illinois. This means that well trained smart doctors are staying. which is good for Illinois. So that school is keeping more in residency in Illinois while the other schools are keeping fewer. Patients want the best trained doctors. This story needs more exploration.
- Anonymous - Monday, May 22, 17 @ 10:17 am:
OK, so maybe there needs to be more exploration into this story, but is ILlinois is taking in more international students as well as out of state who then head elsewhere, how does this benefit out states’ needs?
Don’t our citizens need excellence in medical care? Shouldn’t our state be training those people and providing incentives to stay and serve?
Another disaster under this leadership.
- Amalia - Monday, May 22, 17 @ 10:51 am:
Agree that Illinois taking in more international students who then leave is a problem because it does not serve those who live in Illinois. it is also a money problem. Pay full price, they are taken in. why do we have to have more who pay full price? rising costs, funding issues from the state budget.
much of the story focuses on anecdotal evidence, one person. there must be a deeper dive into numbers on this issue. and how are private universities training so people stay? likely that they are better trained. why would the best hospitals (Northwestern Memorial, best in state, one of the best in the nation, Advocate Christ, Rush) take anything but good docs?
- Anonymous - Monday, May 22, 17 @ 11:18 am:
All we need to do is look at other states and how they function and why they are able to keep their educated in state. I can tell you from my childrens’ experience, having attended college in another state, that there are incentives and preference given to grads from in state schools.
These are not difficult lessons to observe.
- Anonymous - Monday, May 22, 17 @ 7:11 pm:
“why they are able to keep their educated in state”
Other states are paying their bills, the state is not paying its medical bills.