The Physician’s Foundation conducts an annual survey of physicians, residents, and medical students' well-being. The 2024 survey highlights continued and increasing career dissatisfaction. Burnout rates have not declined since 2018. Beyond the changes in the healthcare landscape driven by the practice environment and consolidation, the report examines mental health and feelings about the future of patient care. It also includes some interesting studies on physicians' and residents' reactions to consolidation and the loss of private practice.
2024 Survey of America’s Current and Future Physicians - 2024 PDF Results Report
While it’s true that the cost of a resident will exceed $400,000 during a three-year residency, there’s an important caveat. Radiology does not require the attending physician to be present during image acquisition. However, the teaching attending must document and review every image—a process known as “over-read supervision.” For interventional radiology, the attending does need to be physically present. In radiology training, costs are somewhat offset by billing, as there is a potential efficiency gain that is unlikely to be found in other primary and acute care residency programs.
Still, the reaction of hospital systems to key specialties being slow-walked (radiology residency slot growth is likely averaging 3% compared to 15% in family medicine) has been to start funding their own programs. For instance, HCA is currently running approximately 60 of the 576 internal medicine residencies.
Hospitals Increasingly Funding Their Own Radiology Residency Positions
More reports! Senator Cory Booker is sponsoring a bill in the Senate to require the reporting of demographic data on attrition in residency programs. The noteworthy aspect of this legislation is the proposed shift of residency data reporting requirements from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) to the federal Department of Health & Human Services (HHS).
While the ACGME collects most of this data, it is not publicly accessible and does not track probation, withdrawals, dismissals, or transfers in a reportable format. However, since 2017, the ACGME has been collecting and publishing survey data on resident well-being and burnout indicators. If this bill makes it to the docket, it is expected to pass fairly easily.
Booker Introduces Bill to Increase Transparency of Medical Residency Programs