Without “tail insurance”, residents are not eligible to cover by malpractice insurance going forward into the future–which essentially mean they cannot practice medicine.
Former Hahnemann residents and fellows are being told that they need to be prepared to purchase their own tail coverage insurance–which could cost as much as $150,000/year for OB/GYN and other high risk specialties and $10,000-$20,000/year for internal medicine.
@WayOutWestMom this just is wrong on so many levels. Is anyone advocating for these residents and doctors? I sure hope so. This situation is not their doing…and it’s bad enough that they were displaced and needed to find other jobs. But this? This really is beyond belief.
Hoping this gets somehow solved in the favor of these doctors.
Right now their only recourse is a class action lawsuit against the bankrupt hospital’s parent company–something that can takes year to work its way through the courts.
Tail coverage was supposed to be provided for residents & fellows as part of the bankruptcy settlement, but since the appeals court has halted the bankruptcy over the probably illegal sale of the residency slots, the hospital’s parent company abruptly decided it’s not going to fund any of its contractual obligations.
@WayOutWestMom mine has dropped 2, and will likely drop another soon. She’s just so nervous to drop any with a selective specialty. But will have to. She knows the math is on her side, and there are programs she does not want to go to. She did get a couple more to highly desirable programs, and the next 2 weeks are crazy, but if she drops 1, she will have 10 days off in December. She said she is going to sleep the whole time!
@arisamp , @somemom , @WayOutWestMom , and others in the ‘know’: My nephew will be interviewing for fellowships soon, probably starting in January. Think he sent in 30 applications! My SIL doesn’t have a flexible schedule, isn’t available during the day, etc. I recently retired, so he has asked me to sit in for her for what they call post-interview debriefing. I’m to jot down his reaction, etc and keep notes so he has them when it comes time to rank. His mother played this role when he did his med school interviews, etc. but I was totally out of the loop.
What can you share with me–helpful hints, etc? I’m not even aware that this is a ‘thing’. Are there specific questions I should ask? I might like the idea of a spread sheet/check list. Feeling clueless about what I’m listening for when he calls me! He and I will have time to chat over the holidays, but I’d like to be somewhat prepared.
Mostly the “debrief” after of the interview will be stream of consciousness since interviews can be fairly unstructured. Impressions are mostly gut feelings based upon the interactions the applicant has with various people they encounter during the day and the hospital tour that everyone interviewing gets.
I might be easier to ask your nephew to list positives and negatives for each program
I think a checklist/spreadsheet will be tough since a lot of information will be based on gut feelings and different programs will offer hugely different options.
Some specific things you may want to prompt your nephew to talk about
–impressions of the overall quality/reputation of the program
–impressions of the facilities at the rotation sites
–impressions of the current fellows (because the current fellows will be your nephew’s primary co-workers)
–impressions of faculty
–expected duties
–expected work hours
–any special perks offered by the program
–research opportunities (if applicable)
–research program focuses (if applicable)
–anything off-putting or negative about the program/rotation sites
–any negative personalities
(BTW, I was recently shocked to find out there is NO cap on work hours for fellows. Residents are supposed to have their work hours capped at 80 hours/week averaged over 4 weeks per ACGME rules–something my Ds tell me is mostly honored in the abstract, but not in reality --but fellows don’t even that meager protection.)
BTW, 30 applications is a pretty small number compared to the number of residency applications many med students send out. I think the average is now in the 40-60 range if the applicant is a US MD grad with no red flags. There has been a bad case of application numbers creep in the last 5 years. Applicants who have “issues” (failed STEP, failed rotation(s), failed coursework, geographic restrictions, need visas etc), are US IMGs or FMGs have to apply much more widely–90-120 isn’t uncommon.
@rutgersmamma , as usual WOWmom nailed it, my DD did a stream of consciousness yammer as she traveled, I wrote notes on anything that I thought might help her be reminded, especially emotionally, of how it felt, how she felt, how she was thinking, gut issues, gut instincts. My main focus was more on how to have her be taken back in time (on the day she was ranking) than a spreadsheet technique.
Fellowship is even more about fit with the program than residency. Fit for the fellow and for the program, a place where they will be happy or at least not discontent.
@texaspg mine has 2 big ones this week, the 2 in January, but is going to drop 1. She’s tired of traveling, and it’s not one she is super excited about, and feels like it’s being greedy to even go at this point. She’s going to cancel it at the end of the week (if she hasn’t already) after she goes on these last 2 biggies. Then all she has left is her home program in January! She hasn’t been anywhere for more than 2 days in a row since Nov. 1! She is very road weary, but has a top 5 pretty solidified, and a bottom 3 definitely solidified. The other 8 are all “ok” and would be happy going to them. She’s very happy with how her interview season has gone, but so ready to stop living out of suitcases!
The hearing i a result of suit brought by former Hahnemann residents and fellows who are represented by law firm hired by the AMA.
[quote]
A conversion to liquidation would lead to the appointment of a trustee to oversee whatever assets remain. That would displace EisnerAmper L.P., a restructuring firm hired by [Hahnemann owner Joel} Freedman before the bankruptcy filings to run the hospitals, and Freedman’s bankruptcy firm, Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr LLP. Both firms have been collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees for months.
The malpractice insurance problem affects more than the 570 residents who were displaced when Hahnemann closed. It also hits those who finished the program in 2018 and 2019. The insurance is required to practice medicine.
Gross also cited a second possible reason for converting the cases to a liquidation, namely the “continuing loss to and diminution” of the bankruptcy assets.
There are some proposed changes to how residency interview invitations are handled.
This year OB/GYN programs are piloting some changes aimed at reducing stress in applicants. If this year’s experiment is successful these changes will likely be adopted by other specialties.
The changes:
Setting a final OB/GYN application deadline of October 1
Limiting interview invitations to the number of interview slots available within a program and allowing applicants a minimum of 72 hours after an interview invitation email to respond
Informing applicants of their final status by November 22 (such as invited for interview; wait-listed; or rejected, if the applicant has not been offered an interview)
Setting a common release date for interviews on October 8 and October 15
D2 called this morning. She received her first major research grant. She co-wrote the research proposal with a current fellow at her program, and they were notified yesterday their proposal had been funded.
She’s excited and says this is the first time since undergrad she’s looking forward to being actively involved research.
I have no idea where they find the time. They already don’t sleep…
Some residency programs and most (all?) fellowships have options for research rotations.
I know D2 has said she will get one elective block next year (PGY3) that can be used for research. But that said, this project can’t wait until D2 starts a research rotation next year.