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Why do residency programs require subsidies, are resident doctors each a large net financial loss to a hospital? I can't think of many other career paths where
by beau_g 3y ago
Why do residency programs require subsidies, are resident doctors each a large net financial loss to a hospital? I can't think of many other career paths where someone out of school is so underprepared for the job that the business could not employ them without someone else footing the bill, doesn't seem like a reasonable system that will sustain itself in the long term. I suppose pilots are a bit like this but they typically take the financial risk on themselves to some degree or get the taxpayer funded training via the military.
- nradov 3y agoHospital accounting is always messy. There's no simple way to determine whether a particular program is profitable or not; it comes down to how the accountants allocate overhead costs. But the fact that publicly owned and non-profit teaching hospitals aren't voluntarily expanding their residency training programs is strong evidence that they operate at a loss. Very few other career paths have such an extensive body of knowledge, licensing requirements, and low tolerance for errors. Law is maybe a bit similar in that new associates in most firms are worse than useless, and training them sucks up a lot of time from senior associates and partners. But law firms aren't subject to price fixing, so they have more freedom to raise their rates in order to cover those costs.