Anxiety over continued cuts to higher education and health care is driving some LSU Health New Orleans senior medical students to leave Louisiana, says Dr. Larry Hollier, chancellor of LSU Health New Orleans.
According to the medical school, 51%, or 93, of the 182 LSU Health New Orleans graduating medical students participating in the National Resident Matching Program this year chose to complete their medical training in Louisiana.
In other words, 49% of them—nearly half—will leave Louisiana.
“Fewer of our graduates are staying in-state this year than last, and some decisions to leave were driven by anxiety over continued cuts to both higher education and health care. This makes it increasingly difficult to retain our best and brightest, and we worry about what may happen in coming years if the bleeding doesn’t stop,” Hollier says.
In 2015, 56% of LSU Health’s graduating class decided to stay in-state and 85% of those entered into an LSU Health residency program, according to published reports. In 2014, 53% of the medical school’s graduating medical students participating in Match Day chose to remain in Louisiana.
Louisiana is grappling with significant budget shortfalls. And despite tax increases approved during the recent special session, the state’s senior officials say a larger-than-expected budget gap could mean steep cuts to both higher education and health care.
“That the majority of them have chosen to remain in Louisiana again this year, despite the budget uncertainty, is a vote of confidence in the quality of our graduate medical education programs,” Holler says.
“The number of physicians practicing in an area affects not only access to care, but also quality of life and economic health. The vast majority of physicians providing care to the citizens of Louisiana are LSU-trained doctors,” says Dr. Steve Nelson, dean of the School of Medicine at LSU Health New Orleans.
The medical school says 71% of its students staying in-state will enter into one of LSU Health’s residency programs in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lake Charles, Bogalusa and Lafayette.
All U.S. graduating medical students found out at the same time today where they will spend their years of residency training.
The National Resident Matching Program, which conducts the match annually, connects residency programs with available positions at U.S. teaching hospitals and academic health centers. The program began in 1952.
Half of LSU Health New Orleans graduating medical students are going into primary care.
Graduates training in other states will be going to programs at Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Vanderbilt, the University of Alabama-Birmingham, the Medical University of South Carolina, Duke, Stanford and Washington University, among others, LSU Health New Orleans says.
Residency programs begin on July 1.
