Those unfilled nondesignated prelim spots

[DrDude]

The match data for the past few years shows many hospitals did not fill their quota for surgery prelim spots. There were quite a few hospitals where zero of the nondesignated prelim spots filled in the match. Does that indicate no applicants ranked those spots in the match or did those spots all prematch and thus not show up as matched?

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[njbmd]

Some places are not able to fill their undesignated prelim slots from year to year. The biggest problem with these slots going unfilled is that you can lose funding for them. We try to fill them outside of the match and scramble but we won't just take a "body" to keep the slot. It's better for the resident staff if they are filled but we won't take an unqualified (or problematic) resident just to keep the slot. I will say that except in one or two cases, we have been able to fill these slots outside of the match.