According to media reports, more than 40,000 graduating medical students found out where there will spend the next several years in medical residency and training on what is
appropriately referred to as “Match Day” this past week. Included in the celebration is of course our highly rated and much-respected Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont. Through the National Fellowship Matching Program (NFMP), students list the programs they are interested in joining and the programs choose students they are interested in having. All agree that if any their choices match, they are contractually obligated to honor their choice. NFMP Match Day ceremonies hold much suspense for students and for the friends and family members who join them to learn where they will take the next steps in their education and their medical careers.
The aspiring and soon-to-be primary and specialty care physicians who matched on Friday enter practice at arguably the most challenging time in health care—especially rural health care—in modern history. Our providers and the nurses, staff and administrators who make up our non-profit hospital system in Vermont, are tackling challenges with grit, dedication and fierce determination to care for their patients, support their families and help our communities to thrive.
They are working on short-staffed crews; they are exposed to violence; they are caring for a higher volume of patients and patients who are coming in sicker. They are managing long hours and countless other challenges. They do this work because they care. They do this work because they want to make a difference. They need our support and help to succeed. And believe me, we need them to succeed.
A report released by the Association of American Medical Colleges in 2021 projected a
staggering physician shortage of between approximately 38,000 to 124,000 open-yet-needed positions in the next 12 years. Growing populations in various parts of the country and aging populations, like ours in Vermont, add to the challenge. The result is difficulty finding primary care providers and long wait times for certain specialty care. These are challenges we already face in Vermont.
Even with these significant headwinds, it’s impossible not to feel joy and hope when you see medical students being matched around the country, knowing many will be headed to Vermont to join fellow residents at UVM—learning, studying and researching and finally staying here to practice and to become part of our community. Their energy and fresh thinking will bolster those who have been in the trenches for years, even decades, and help to carry us forward.
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Devon Green, Vice President of Government Relations
We’re officially in the second half of the session. Anything that didn’t get passed out of its committee of jurisdiction is dead… unless it’s a money bill; or dispensation is requested; or it is turned into a committee bill; or it gets tacked on to a different bill. Nothing is ever truly dead until the gavel falls for adjournment. Below is a summary of key bills from this week.
Workforce: A lot of movement on workforce this week with the House Commerce and Economic Development Committee passing out a workforce bill that includes:
- $3.8 million towards scholarships for clinical mental health counseling and all levels of nursing for those with household income of $75,000 or less
- $3 million for nursing forgivable loan incentives
- $1 million for a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner forgivable loan incentives
- $1 million for EMS training
The House Health Care committee is passing out the interstate counseling compact, the physical therapy licensure compact, the audiology and speech-language pathology compact and a psychology interjurisdictional compact. The House Health Care committee also passed H.473, a bill that allows for remote supervision of radiologist assistants. Thank you to our Chief Medical Officers for timely feedback on the issue.
Workplace Violence: The Senate Health and Welfare Committee passed out S.36 on Thursday. The committee made the following changes:
- pared down the definition of disorderly conduct to fighting or violent, tumultuous or threatening behavior
- made criminal threatening of a health care provider a felony
- required a report on health care provider training and recommendations around de-escalation practices
Thank you to Sen. Sears and Sen. Lyons and their committees for their work on this bill. Next stop for the bill is the Senate floor and then the House.
Adult Protective Services Bill: The House Human Services Committee advanced H.171, an update to the vulnerable adult abuse and neglect statute, including expanding the definition of abuse and neglect to include medical treatment provided negligently. We are concerned that this expanded definition equates human error with abuse and will continue making our case on the Senate side.
Cybersecurity: This was the equivalent of a March Madness Cinderella basketball team—H.291 passed out of committee in a flash. The bill creates a Cybersecurity Advisory Council, including a representative from a Vermont hospital or accountable care organization. It also requires the Green Mountain Care Board to develop standards to protect critical health care infrastructure.
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Less staff, longer delays and fewer options: Rural America confronts a health care crisis |
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ABC News
More than 40,000 graduating medical students learned Friday where they will spend the next three to seven years of their medical training.
With the United States grappling with a simultaneous shortage of primary care physicians and a rural health care crisis, many of the graduating students are set to enter the front lines of the country's health care shortage.
At least 136 rural hospitals and health systems closed between 2010 and 2021, and over 40% of rural hospitals operate with negative profit margins. Despite billions of dollars in investment in health care, hospitals throughout the United States face the possibility of shutting down.
Moreover, health care professionals believe that the shortage of PCPs can make other elements of health care more expensive and worsen overall patient outcomes.
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Wright takes over as NMC CEO; Two months in, he’s bringing the ‘secret sauce’ |
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Saint Albans Messenger
After the pandemic flipped the healthcare industry on its back, Northwestern Medical Center is picking up the pieces.
And it’s Peter Wright’s job to put them back together.
The new CEO of NMC began his work as the regional hospital’s chief executive this past January after replacing interim CEO Jonathan Billings, and he’s spent the last few months making his rounds, wearing out shoe leather as he gets to know the hospital’s policies, practices and people.
“I’m out on the floors. I want to know people,” he said. “And I haven’t been here long enough that I know everybody, but I know that I will.”
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Vermont Senate gives initial approval to abortion ‘omnibus’ bill seeking to protect reproductive health care |
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VTDigger
In a preliminary vote on Thursday, the Vermont Senate advanced a sweeping bill that seeks to further strengthen the state’s existing protections to reproductive health care access, including abortion and gender-affirming care.
Senators approved the measure, S.37, on a voice vote and are expected to cast a final vote Friday, after which it would move to the House for consideration.
Sen. Ginny Lyons, D-Chittenden Southeast, who spearheaded the bill, told her colleagues on the floor Thursday it is a direct response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision issued last summer, in which the court’s conservative majority struck down nationwide abortion access protections. Following the high court’s decision, the issue was put to individual states to decide, and dozens of states have outlawed or severely restricted access to abortion.
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UVM senior medical students’ futures revealed at Match Day March 17 |
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VBM
The University of Vermont’s graduating medical students are among a record-breaking 43,000* future physicians participating in the National Resident Matching Program’s (NRMP) 2023 Main Residency Match, the results of which will be revealed on Match Day on Friday, March 17.
The UVM Larner College of Medicine’s festivities will take place in the Hoehl Gallery in the Health Science Research Facility beginning at about 11:30 am, with match announcements beginning at noon.
UVM’s Match Day event was virtual in 2020 and 2021 and took place in-person at UVM’s Davis Center in 2022. This is the first time since 2019 that the event has taken place on-site at the College of Medicine. Features include a bagpiper-led parade of medical students, short remarks, and students opening their Match envelopes and/or announcing their Match results on stage.
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AI in the ER: The potential role of chatbots in Vt. hospitals |
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WCAX
Industries are figuring out what to do with artificial intelligence and now that includes the medical field.
We spoke with officials at the UVM Medical Center and the Rutland Regional Medical Center about the role artificial intelligence plays in health care, the pros and cons, and where they see the future headed.
Artificial intelligence isn’t a huge player in health care operations right now, but it’s in the forecast. At UVMMC, infectious disease specialist and medical ethicist Dr. Tim Lahey said the use of AI is in the exploratory phases, but he doesn’t know of an established AI routine currently in use at the hospital.
“But I can think of just a myriad of different examples of new ways people are exploring right now. So I suspect the years ahead are going to take a lot of change,” he said.
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Get paid to enroll in college? Yes, it's for real at some community colleges |
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WGBH
Elizabeth Smith, a stay-at-home mom of six in southern Vermont, recently re-enrolled in school when the Community College of Vermont made an offer she couldn't refuse: $3,500 a semester deposited in her bank account, no strings attached.
“I think I was in a little bit of disbelief,” Smith recalled recently.
The money doesn’t go too far after she accounts for textbooks, groceries and childcare — it's not enough to cover even the part-time childcare she needs for her own two-year-old — but it helps.
The Community College of Vermont and other two-year schools from Maine to Florida are now shelling out money, sometimes in tandem with employers, to enroll students in training programs that prepare them for office jobs, as auto mechanics and in childcare.
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Letter to the editor: UVM Health Network aims its governance toward communities |
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VTDigger
I write as chair of the UVM Health Network Board. For the last two years, my board colleagues and I have overseen a change in the governance structure for the seven network partner boards (six hospitals and a home health agency) and the Health Network board itself. We now have a clearer division of labor, with less overlap.
The seven partner boards will focus on quality, access, diversity, equity and inclusion, determining community need, and fundraising to meet those needs through improved facilities and programs.
The Network Board will concentrate on finance and operations, working to further integrate network services, aiming toward improved outcomes for the communities we serve. Network and local boards will share the work of strategic planning.
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