The plight of medical residents has long been a topic of interest to medical students, medical residents themselves, and sometimes to the general public and even Congress, which granted an antitrust exemption to the residency Match Program.
We’ve all seen the TV shows that show medical residents working torturous hours and sometimes being subjected to verbal abuse by attending physicians, all while earning essentially peanuts for providing lifesaving and life-sustaining services to the public.
And there are numerous blog posts and articles in the online and mainstream press about how hard the life of a medical resident is. For example, an anonymous physician posted on the website “KevinMD.com” on April 23, 2012, with the heading “Medical residents are abused more than Chinese factory workers.” And on May 19, 2016, Nathaniel P. Morris, a newly matched medical school graduate, had his guest blog post published in the online edition of Scientific American. Dr. Morris’ essay was entitled “Are Doctors in Training Really No Better Than Indentured Servants?”
Just today, there was a new article published online that again argues that medical residents are treated like indentured servants. The article, written by Dr.Kim-Lien Nguyen, a cardiologist and assistant professor of medicine at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine, is published in the online publication STAT, at statnews.com.
Dr. Nguyen makes a number of interesting point in his article. First, in discussing the recently announced closure of Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia, he notes that the hospital essentially auctioned off its 550 residency slots for $55 million to a consortium of regional hospitals (i.e., a price of $100,00 per residency slot).
The sale still needs to be approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court handling the hospital’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy case. And another bidder, in California, and has offered $60 million. At present, the hearing before the Bankruptcy Court is scheduled for September 4.
As Dr. Nguyen indicates, the sale of the hospital residency slots almost reduces the residents at the hospital to mere commodities that can be sold to the highest bidder.
He also points out that the annual salaries of medical residents have risen by only 3.2% per year over the past thirty years. Residents earn between $54,000 and $56,000 per year, even though they average 80 hours of work per week. That’s between $13.50/hour and $14.00/hour.
Dr. Nguyen’s last statement in his enlightening and thought provoking essay is this: “Congress and the public need to hold teaching hospitals accountable for improving wages and working conditions of the residents they claim to train.”
I couldn’t agree more.