Fun articles

[dreamweaver1988]

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A few interesting links I think the SDN community would enjoy:

1. Concerns about quality of some Carib schools
http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2006/01/16/prl10116.htm

2. Carib schools paying hospitals so their 3rd- and 4th-year students can do their rotations
http://chronicle.com/article/Students-From-Caribbean-Med/125681

3. Physician shortage and its implications for IMGs, Caribs; also, how DOs are helping
https://www.aamc.org/download/82828/data/salsberg2008l.pdf

 

[Prncssbuttercup]

I was pretty sure a lot of schools pay hospitals to get preference for their students in rotations? LECOM gets flamed all the time for NOT paying hospitals for spots, thus making it harder for their students to find rotations

 

[dreamweaver1988]

IDK you may be right. The article said many of the public schools in NYC can't afford to pay (at least not without raising tuition) thus putting US MD students at a disadvantage, somewhat ironically, to the Carib MD students. 😉

 

[Prncssbuttercup]

Not really sure honestly... I just know some do pay, and some don't, and there seems to be some disagreement if that's a good or bad thing... I honestly don't know... 😉 what I do know is that I am happy to be in a US school and not on an island!

 

[ManBroDude]

What's crazy is that the Carib schools are paying MILLIONS of dollars for rotation spots for their students in NYC. Touro-NY got outbid by one of them in 2008 for the Harlem Hospital Center literally right next door. Same story with Columbia and the other MD schools. All but one of the NYC schools was unaffected.

 

[Prncssbuttercup]

That is possible... but to some extent, the hospitals are in on it... they are at least partially to blame

 

[DocEspana]

IDK you may be right. The article said many of the public schools in NYC can't afford to pay (at least not without raising tuition) thus putting US MD students at a disadvantage, somewhat ironically, to the Carib MD students. 😉

Its more an issue of what is "customary" and what is "payment." LCME (US MD) medical schools cannot pay for rotations, as part of their accreditation and the wording is quite clear on it. US DO schools similarly cannot pay for rotations as part of their accreditation, but the wording is a bit more hazy (not enough to make it okay, but simply not as black and white as the LCME is about the matter). They generally follow a tradition of "customary", being that they will not exceed what is the customary exchange between a school and hospital in the region of the rotation. Generally speaking, customary is $0.00, but its sometimes a couple hundred bucks a month. Both types get around this limitation by not "paying" but rather by "investing in education". This is not as flimsy as it sounds. Educational money is 1) tightly regulated to only be for the direct betterment of the students being trained and 2) generally very small. $150-300 per student per month is the norm. Offshore schools are paying $400-$500 per student per WEEK and the money they allocate is given carte blanche. Testimony around various attempts (some successful!) to limit offshore schools frequently turns up the person who is trying to defend the offshore schools and lets slip that the money they give goes to getting a new parking lot, leather couches in the attendings call room, and covering the cost of cable TV for patients.

What's crazy is that the Carib schools are paying MILLIONS of dollars for rotation spots for their students in NYC. Touro-NY got outbid by one of them in 2008 for the Harlem Hospital Center literally right next door. Same story with Columbia and the other MD schools. All but one of the NYC schools was unaffected.

yup. Its sad stuff. Ah well.

That is possible... but to some extent, the hospitals are in on it... they are at least partially to blame

Oh the hospitals totally are. But there are a few good arguments being made that the offshore money represents only a drop of water on a desert of debt, and that all this money is being used (generally speaking) rather carelessly, rather than on vital hospital financial needs. There is a brewing sentiment among NY physician leaders that suing the state hospitals may be the next step, as the hospitals recieve plenty of state and federal money for training of various kinds (student and resident) and that taking that funding and diverting so much of the resources towards 1) non-US trained students who 2) statistically leave the state between graduation and residency and between residency and full practice at much higher rates (>50%) than US-trained students and the residents they become, who show much more loyalty to the regions and hospitals they train at. We fully agree its partially the hospitals fault. sure they are in dire financial straits, but they are also going about fixing the problem in a destructive manner when they accept offshore students to the point of excluding US students. This is especially true for the state and city hospitals where funds are somewhat communal so a student at one NY HHC hospital is the same as at any

 

[dreamweaver1988]

Oh, and I finally found the one I originally wanted to post:

"Medical Schools in Region Fight Caribbean Flow"

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/23/nyregion/23caribbean.html?scp=1&sq=caribbean medical school&st=cse