medical schools losing money.. what is going on?

[chef]

During a conversation w/ my mentor, I found out that quite a number of med schools are losing tons of money every year, including Georgetown, MCPHanemann (bought out I think), Stanford, UCSF, to name a few. What is going on and should we, as potential students at these schools in the future, be concerned?

Does a school in red ink result in subpar level of education, compromised quality of teaching, facilities, research, etc?

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[none]

That all depends on exactly how/why they're losing money. I know I did my part with a $2700 donation in application fees.

 

[rpames]

I was talking to one of my advisors yesturday after a pre-med conference at Iowa Medical school and he said the same thing. Med.schools lose money on every medical student, at least most schools. The school can't make enough on tuition and can't get the state to suppliment enough. Many are reducing admitions so they don't lose as much. This will lead to even great competion on getting in.

 

[Hopkins2010]

Yes, many academic medical centers are losing money. One other reason for this is the fact that many times, these medical centers have an overwhelming percentage of indigent patients who are treated there, meaning the medical center has to eat the costs of uninsured persons usually.

One thing I was careful to take note of is the general fiscal attitude of the medical center at the schools I interviewed at. I asked myself questions such as:

Is the medical center expanding and building new facilities or are they contracting and cutting back services?

I think most schools have done a good job of insulating the quality of the education they provide from fiscal problems. For example, UCSF is still a top notch school and provides a very good education, in spite of the fact their system is losing money supposedly.

WashU is one of the few academic medical centers that I have seen that is actually expanding. There are several facilities undergoing expansion and in general the fiscal environment seems pretty stable.

 

[med student]

At NYMC they just finished the new building which has a lecture hall, classrooms, and an anatomy lab. So chances are there is pleanty of money here.