More LSU Health New Orleans Medical Grads Staying in LA & Entering Primary Care

 

Forty-nine percent, or 89 of 181 LSU Health New Orleans graduating medical students participating in the National Resident Match Program this year, chose to remain in Louisiana to complete their medical training. Eighty-one percent of those staying in-state will enter an LSU Health residency program. That is up from 46% staying in state last year and 75% of those entering an LSU Health residency program. The LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine residency programs in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Lake Charles and Bogalusa will accept 205 new residents for 205 residency positions.

“More of our graduates have elected to remain in Louisiana this year to complete their medical training, and all of our residency programs once again filled,” notes Dr. Larry Hollier, Chancellor of LSU Health New Orleans. “Our Match numbers reflect stable funding for higher education and our teaching hospitals. We are grateful to the Governor and our legislators for increasing the confidence of our medical graduates enough to remain in Louisiana.”

The percentage of LSU Health New Orleans medical graduates going into primary care is 54% this year, up from 49.7% last year. Primary Care specialties include Family Practice, Internal Medicine, Medicine-Preliminary, Medicine-Primary, Obstetrics-Gynecology, Pediatrics, and Medicine-Pediatrics. OB-GYN is not always included in primary care data; however, in some Louisiana communities the only physician is an OB-GYN.

“The fact that more of our graduates have chosen to enter our residency programs represents the impact of funding and budget stability, and continued budget stability will raise our numbers even higher,” said Dr. Steve Nelson, Dean of the School of Medicine at LSU Health New Orleans. “We are also especially pleased that the number of our graduates entering primary care increased by nearly 10%. Not only is there a shortage of physicians nationally, but in some Louisiana communities there is an acute shortage, and primary care doctors fill a critical need. ”

Of the 66 accredited residency and fellowship programs under LSU Health New Orleans, 34 participated in the Main NRMP Match whose results were released today. They are Anesthesiology, Child Neurology, Dermatology, Emergency Medicine (Baton Rouge and New Orleans), Family Practice (Kenner, Bogalusa, Lafayette and Lake Charles), Internal Medicine (Baton Rouge, Lafayette and New Orleans), Interventional Radiology, Medicine-Preliminary (Baton Rouge, Lafayette and New Orleans), Neurological Surgery, Neurology, Obstetrics-Gynecology (Baton Rouge and New Orleans), Orthopedic Surgery, Otolaryngology, Pathology, Pediatrics, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Plastic Surgery, Psychiatry (Baton Rouge and New Orleans), Radiology, General Surgery, Surgery-Preliminary, Vascular Surgery, Medicine-Pediatrics, Medicine-Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics-Emergency Medicine.

“LSU Health New Orleans medical graduates are in demand.” adds Dr. Cathy Lazarus, Associate Dean for Student Affairs at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine. “Those who pursue different experiences at this stage of their training are going to some of the most prestigious out-of-state programs. Many of them will bring the benefits of these experiences home when they return to Louisiana to practice.”

LSU Health New Orleans medical graduates training in other states will be going to such highly regarded programs as Johns Hopkins, Vanderbilt, the University of Alabama-Birmingham, the Mayo Clinic and Emory University, among others.

The Match, conducted annually by the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP), is the primary system that matches applicants to residency programs with available positions at U.S. teaching hospitals and academic health centers. The choices of the students are entered into a software program as are the choices of the institutions with residency programs. All U.S. graduating medical students found out at the same time today where they "matched" and where they will spend their years of residency training. National studies have found that a high number of physicians set up their permanent practices in the areas where they have completed their residency programs, but Louisiana is different from many states. A high percentage of LSU Health medical graduates come home to establish their practices. The vast majority of physicians providing care to the citizens of Louisiana are LSU Health-trained doctors.

The National Residency Matching Program was established in 1952 to provide an orderly and fair mechanism to match the preferences of applicants for U.S. residency positions with residency program choices of applicants. The program provides a common time for the announcement of the appointments, as well as an agreement for programs and applicants to honor the commitment to offer and accept an appointment if a match results.

Residency programs begin on July 1, 2019.