ACHI report says not enough residencies for med school grads

Arkansas needs more doctors, but there haven’t been enough residency positions for new medical school graduates in the past three years, a study by the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement found.

The ACHI study released Wednesday (Dec. 13) found the gap hit its high point in 2021 when there were only 309 residency positions for 431 graduates. The gap has narrowed somewhat since then. In 2022, there were 408 graduates, but only 341 residency positions were available. In 2023, there were 356 residency positions for 401 graduates.

The four prior years, there were more residency positions than graduates. In 2020, there were 264 graduates and 289 residency positions available for them. There were 163 graduates and 280 residency positions in 2019. In the prior two years, there were 159 graduates and 223 residency positions in 2018, and 160 graduates and 210 residency positions in 2017.

The number of medical school graduates increased from 160 in 2017 to 401 in 2023 because of the opening of the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro and the Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine in Fort Smith.

Classes at the new Alice L. Walton School of Medicine in Bentonville are expected to begin in 2025, creating even more of a need for new residency programs.

Medical school graduates who don’t have a slot must leave the state to continue their training.

A 2021 report by the Association of American Medical Colleges found that 57% of those who completed their residency training from 2011 through 2020 remained in the state where they completed their residency to practice medicine.

“Arkansas has gone from being a net importer of physician talent to a net exporter,” said ACHI President and CEO Dr. Joe Thompson in the release. “The increase in the number of graduating physicians, both M.D. and D.O., has outpaced available residency positions necessary for their next step in training. To ensure Arkansans have access to primary and specialty care in the future, we must strengthen our training pipeline for future physicians by investing in more residency positions in our state.”

The news comes as the state faces a shortage of doctors. In 2020, Arkansas was 46th in active physicians per capita, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. The state had 6,500 active physicians, or 215.4 for every 100,000 residents. Of those, 6,132 were active medical doctors, while 368 were active doctors of osteopathic medicine.

A recent report and interactive dashboard by ACHI found Arkansas had 2,778 active primary care physicians in 2020, or 9.2 per 100,000 Arkansans in 2020, but only six were practicing full-time. Six of the state’s 75 counties had only one full-time physician that year. Moreover, 27% of the state’s full-time primary care physicians were at least age 60, while physicians under age 45 were more likely to practice less than full-time.

ACHI found that 68% of the state’s active primary care physicians were male in 2020. Also, 6% of the state’s active primary care physicians were Black, and 2.5% were Hispanic. Those groups comprise 14.9% and 8.5% of the state’s population, respectively.

The release said the federal budget bill approved in December 2022 created 200 new residency slots starting in fiscal year 2026. The slots are supported by Medicare. One hundred are allocated to psychiatry and psychiatric subspecialties.