Editor’s notice: As a part of the celebration of AuntMinnie.com’s upcoming twenty fifth anniversary, we’re presenting 25 for 25 — a collection that includes our hottest content material for every of the final 25 years. New articles will probably be revealed every Monday till our official anniversary at RSNA 2024. In 2013, our prime article coated a choice by a New York Metropolis hospital to shut its radiology residency program.
A New York Metropolis hospital on Monday moved to terminate its radiology residency program, leaving 11 residents with out a program or funding to proceed past the present program 12 months ending June 30. Funding for this system is being shifted to pay for extra spots for major care residents.
In a February 11 letter to radiology residents, St. Barnabas Hospital Senior Vice President Keith Wolf stated the establishment had determined to finish its osteopathic radiology residency program, and that it could not renew any resident contracts past June 30.
“The hospital will help the affected residents of their endeavors to proceed their training,” Wolf wrote within the letter, a replica of which was obtained by AuntMinnie.com.
Hospital spokesperson Steven Clark informed AuntMinnie.com that the hospital has determined to reallocate the cash from radiology to fund new residencies in major care, with a watch towards the anticipated want for extra major care physicians going ahead, particularly within the hospital’s core space of the Bronx.
Beneath the Affected person Safety and Reasonably priced Care Act (PPACA), extra individuals are anticipated to grow to be insured and to hunt major medical care, driving the necessity for extra major care physicians. At St. Barnabas, the choice was based mostly extra on the perceived must reallocate assets than to save cash, Clark stated.
“Though monetary implications had been thought of when making the choice, we had been very motivated by the need to position extra coaching slots into areas the place the healthcare focus is lately, similar to major care,” Clark wrote in an electronic mail. “This choice was not based mostly on any actual or perceived oversaturation of radiologists available in the market. We are going to transfer the slots to different packages to assist the shift in healthcare, particularly within the Bronx, the place major care is a major want.”
The choice to close this system is not going to have an effect on any graduating residents, however it should have an effect on 11 residents at the moment in this system: three postgraduate 12 months 1 (PGY-1) residents (interns), three PGY-2 residents, three PGY-3 residents, and two PGY-4 residents.
The hospital in January mentioned the opportunity of closing this system with a consultant of the Committee of Interns and Residents, a nationwide union representing residents and interns, and likewise briefly mentioned it at a gathering on January 29 earlier than sending out the formal discover on February 11, Clark stated.
Excessive and dry
However residents have complained, each on the AuntMinnie.com Residents Discussion board and by phone, that the hospital has left them excessive and dry — and even perhaps unemployable, as a result of it declined to switch the funding to a different residency program that might doubtlessly decide them up, committing the cash as an alternative to different residency subspecialties inside the hospital.
“If we’re not receiving our funding, we’re in a bind as a result of what hospital goes to take us with out our funding?” stated third-year resident Nirav Shelat, MD, in an interview with AuntMinnie.com. “They must pay not solely our wage, however our malpractice and all of that, so it simply appears unreasonable.”
A part of the cash earmarked for residencies comes from the federal authorities, and residency packages which might be ending sometimes switch funds to different colleges which might be keen to just accept the residents to allow them to full their training. On this case, nevertheless, St. Barnabas selected to maintain the cash and repurpose the funds “one for one,” to new residency slots in major care.
“The cash is being shifted to a different specialty, so it isn’t just like the hospital is taking the cash and pocketing it,” Clark stated. “If a hospital closes and a resident is discontinued there, as I perceive it, it turns into form of an orphan spot that the brand new hospital can now assume. So when you had eight radiology residents and so they went to a special hospital, they’d carry with them a spot, and the cash could be there for it, however that is provided that the hospital closes. So it is actually shifting the [funds] to what the hospital thinks is a extra essential want, which is major care.”
This would possibly not assist the residents whose program is being terminated, he acknowledged, however he stated the hospital will do what it will possibly to assist place the residents in new packages. The New York Faculties of Osteopathic Drugs Instructional Consortium (NYCOMEC), accredited by the American Osteopathic Affiliation (AOA) to supervise osteopathic residencies within the state, additionally stated it should do what it will possibly to assist discover new packages for the residents. However for now, the scenario seems grim.
“We signed on to our residency program considering that 5 years from now we’d be radiologists, and now, to have the rug pulled out from below us — we’re all surprised, and we do not know what our subsequent steps are,” Shelat stated. “They informed us that we’re not going to get our funding, and that is what shocked us all essentially the most. Why would a hospital tackle a radiology resident’s wage at $60,000 a 12 months plus malpractice and the price to coach him?”
“It is unlucky, however the cash would not include them,” Clark stated.
