Whoot! Whoot! New DO School Proposed in Maryland

[Wjldenver]

...Thought of JKDoctor when I saw this. For folks new to this forum, this is not a good thing. JKDoctor used to post these new DO school announcements in a sarcastic fashion. And these new DO school announcements seem to be never-ending!

Meritus Health is making plans to start a medical school to address shortage of doctors

If all goes as planned, the first students would enter the proposed Meritus School of Osteopathic Medicine in 2025 and graduate in 2029.

www.heraldmailmedia.com

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[Dr Meow]

"The last time we did it, we were short 42 physicians in the community, primary care and specialty care. Today, we're short 52. So it gives you an idea of how much need there is"

Translation: Lets spend many millions to build a new school because we're short 52 docs. Instead of paying docs more to relocate.

 

[seaslug23]

I don't understand why this is a bad thing, could you explain please?

 

[Wjldenver]

I don't understand why this is a bad thing, could you explain please?

Medical Schools (MD&DO) are expanding faster than the number of residency positions. That makes the Match more competitive every year. In addition, it is a simple supply & demand issue in regard to compensation. As the supply of physicians increases, there will be increased downward pressure on compensation at some point.

Look at what is happening to the EM job market due to a growing over supply issue here in Denver:

Denver Hospital Offering Emergency Physicians $21 Per Hour

Emergency physician hospital employment in Denver is competitive. Lutheran Medical Center pushes the envelope by offering doctors $21/hour!

sullivanlegal.us

 

[seaslug23]

Medical Schools (MD&DO) are expanding faster than the number of residency positions. That makes the Match more competitive every year. In addition, it is a simple supply & demand issue in regard to compensation. As the supply of physicians increases, there will be increased downward pressure on compensation at some point.

Look at what is happening to the EM job market due to a growing over supply issue here in Denver:

Denver Hospital Offering Emergency Physicians $21 Per Hour

Emergency physician hospital employment in Denver is competitive. Lutheran Medical Center pushes the envelope by offering doctors $21/hour!

sullivanlegal.us

I was aware of the residency crunch that's going on. Some states and institutions are working on addressing that issue, as I saw from various news sources. However, residency seats are not being opened as fast as schools, so the bottle neck that you mentioned seems it will continue for a while.

The link you added sent me down a rabbit hole, I don't believe 100% that the contract written from the hospital is solely due to a surplus of supply. That seems like a very generalized view of a complex system. Firstly, the staffing agency charges a rate anywhere from 25% to 100% of the hired employee's wages (the company or hospital has not disclosed that exact rate). So I can imagine that hospital is trying to cut back on the cost of the physician and paying for the staffing agency for fulfilling the role (2021 Survey of the Emergency Medicine Job Market - ACEP Now). I think there may be a slightly higher amount of EM physicians in Denver simply because it's a trendy city. However, I did still find job openings for EM physician positions in Denver on various job boards and staffing agencies.
I don't believe that a surplus supply of doctors is necessarily a problem right now, if anything that reason would be a facade put out by hospitals and staffing agencies so they can make more money from lowering physician wages. I think an accurate and comprehensive report of the problem is nicely outlined in this research article: (https://www.aamc.org/media/54681/download?attachment).

The bottle neck at residency would be the biggest concern for opening more schools.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

The main problem is that eventually, those who didn’t get residencies are going to force the hands of congress to pass some ridiculous residency expansion bill

 

[Obnoxious Dad]

Stop with the residency slot paranoia. There are plenty of residency slots leading to board certification for graduates of American medical schools. In the fall of 2021 there were less than 31,000 people entering allopathic and osteopathic medical schools in the U.S. About 5%, or 1,600, of those people won't graduate. That leaves about 29,500 looking for a slot in 2025. In the fall of 2020 there were 34,754 people entering residencies leading to board certification in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. See table C.33 in this file:

https://www.acgme.org/globalassets/pfassets/publicationsbooks/2020-2021_acgme_databook_document.pdf

That's a surplus of about 5,000 slots for IMGs and FMGs.

Furthermore, the number of slots keeps growing because residents are cheaper than attendings, PAs and NPs. See Table C.27 in the same file.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Stop with the residency slot paranoia. There are plenty of residency slots leading to board certification for graduates of American medical schools. In the fall of 2021 there were less than 31,000 people entering allopathic and osteopathic medical schools in the U.S. About 5%, or 1,600, of those people won't graduate. That leaves about 29,500 looking for a slot in 2025. In the fall of 2020 there were 34,754 people entering residencies leading to board certification in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. See table C.33 in this file:

https://www.acgme.org/globalassets/pfassets/publicationsbooks/2020-2021_acgme_databook_document.pdf

That's a surplus of about 5,000 slots for IMGs and FMGs.

Furthermore, the number of slots keeps growing because residents are cheaper than attendings, PAs and NPs. See Table C.27 in the same file.

You don’t think that 5000 gap could be closed quite quickly? IIRC, 2024 is when the number of graduates will really begin to accelerate.

 

[Goro]

The main problem is that eventually, those who didn’t get residencies are going to force the hands of congress to pass some ridiculous residency expansion bill

That logic hasn't worked for Law or Pharmacy.

 

[Obnoxious Dad]

If residency slots grow at a compounded rate of 1.5% per year, there will be 37,440 slots for 29,500 applicants in 2025. That leaves approximately 8,000 slots for FMGs and IMGs.

You don’t think that 5000 gap could be closed quite quickly? IIRC, 2024 is when the number of graduates will really begin to accelerate.

 

[Goro]

Medical Schools (MD&DO) are expanding faster than the number of residency positions. That makes the Match more competitive every year. In addition, it is a simple supply & demand issue in regard to compensation. As the supply of physicians increases, there will be increased downward pressure on compensation at some point.

Look at what is happening to the EM job market due to a growing over supply issue here in Denver:

Denver Hospital Offering Emergency Physicians $21 Per Hour

Emergency physician hospital employment in Denver is competitive. Lutheran Medical Center pushes the envelope by offering doctors $21/hour!

sullivanlegal.us

A confounder is that the Baby Boom generation of docs (some 20-30% of all US docs) will be retiring or dying off soon!

 

[TruthInMedEd]

Interesting, since Morgan State announced their plans for opening a DO school in Maryland as well. Looks like another situation where two schools are targeting the same area with simultaneous efforts similar to Montana and Touro/RVU.

Morgan State To Open First New Medical School At An HBCU In 45 Years

Morgan State will be home to the first new osteopathic medical school at any HBCU and the first new medical school at an HBCU in 45 years!

blackamericaweb.com

 

[Benja99]

Interesting, since Morgan State announced their plans for opening a DO school in Maryland as well. Looks like another situation where two schools are targeting the same area with simultaneous efforts similar to Montana and Touro/RVU.

Morgan State To Open First New Medical School At An HBCU In 45 Years

Morgan State will be home to the first new osteopathic medical school at any HBCU and the first new medical school at an HBCU in 45 years!

blackamericaweb.com

Ehhh, I don’t think it’s similar actually. The schools will be in completely separate parts of the state, Morgan State is in Baltimore and Meritus is in western Maryland- they won’t be competing for clinical rotations. There’s no med school out near western Maryland. WVUSOM is the closest with ~40 students in the nearby town doing clinicals, but it’s a completely different healthcare system and Meritus actually offers more services. WVUSOM students rotate at Morgantown rather than Meritus for “special” rotations.

 

[hellosnd]

John Hopkins in clearly isn’t enough for Baltimore

 

[Benja99]

Yeah… I can’t speak for Baltimore.

 

[TragicalDrFaust]

John Hopkins in clearly isn’t enough for Baltimore

For those who seek to capitalize on medical school applicants, it’s not. UMD isn’t enough either. Both of them are hard to get into and mediocre Maryland students needn’t apply to either, speaking from personal experience. There are likely thousands of wealthy suburban Marylanders who want to be doctors like their parents but won’t make the cut at JHU or UMD. So there is a juicy untapped market for low tier med school in Maryland.

 

[celestia0313]

Interesting, since Morgan State announced their plans for opening a DO school in Maryland as well. Looks like another situation where two schools are targeting the same area with simultaneous efforts similar to Montana and Touro/RVU.

Morgan State To Open First New Medical School At An HBCU In 45 Years

Morgan State will be home to the first new osteopathic medical school at any HBCU and the first new medical school at an HBCU in 45 years!

blackamericaweb.com

Morgan state said they plan to welcome their first batch of students next year, but they’re still in the applicant status of seeking accreditation, as is Meritus. so realistically how long will it be? Next cycle or the cycle after?

 

[DocSherman]

For those who seek to capitalize on medical school applicants, it’s not. UMD isn’t enough either. Both of them are hard to get into and mediocre Maryland students needn’t apply to either, speaking from personal experience. There are likely thousands of wealthy suburban Marylanders who want to be doctors like their parents but won’t make the cut at JHU or UMD. So there is a juicy untapped market for low tier med school in Maryland.

That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, I would think. Not every med student has a desire to be a big shot - some just want to do good daily work in the field.