[HSF] Duplicity

[Ramaiah, Chandrashekar]

Hal,
You are correct but I do not think CMS or even congress will address
this issue (for 8 years we had the CT surgeon as the Majority leader who
thought we made a lot of money). Compensation will increase but not
significantly from increased reimbursement. Just like all the hospitals
are subsidizing Anesthesiologists they will have to pay a premium to get
well qualified surgeons that can take care of the most complex patients
we are going see in the future. Even when I applied it was 180+
candidates for 120+ spots. Last year 1/3 of the candidates we
interviewed did not even go on the ranking list... needless to say we
did not match but all the candidates matched.
I met one of my former General Surgery residents who is in a very
prominent program in Boston and said several of the residents do not
even have interviews let alone a job.

Chand


-----Original Message-----
From: openheart-l-bounces at lists.hsforum.com
[mailto:openheart-l-bounces at lists.hsforum.com] On Behalf Of
Hgrmd at aol.com
Sent: Thursday, February 01, 2007 3:36 PM
To: OpenHeart-L at lists.hsforum.com
Subject: Re: [HSF] Duplicity

Chand,
  As of a few days ago, only 27 applicants had applied for the 160
training 
positions in the U.S.  I spoke with one prominent program director  who
felt 
that it was likely he would take no one this year.  If that isn't  a
crisis for 
our specialty and North America, then I guess there isn't  one.  Until
the 
government corrects the draconian cuts in reimbursement  inflicted over
the past 
15 years, then the problem won't correct itself.   When I was training
and I 
thought that I would be near the top of compensation  in the
specialties, I 
had no problem with the long years of training and  privation.
Apparently, 
other residents felt similar to me. During the time  I was looking for a
training 
position, the applicant to acceptance ratio was  around 3:1. I don't
think 
"dumbing down" our training is the answer.  More  money to attract the
crem de la 
crem in numbers is the answer.
Hal
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