An executive at one of Iowa’s two medical schools is asking state officials to consider new restrictions for doctors-in-training who get rotation slots in Iowa’s teaching hospitals.
“There’s becoming a real trend for these off-shore medical schools tu buy residency slots and to buy rotation slots,” says Sue Huppert, a vice president at Des Moines University.
Earlier this year a for-profit medical school in the Caribbean tried to pay to place its third and fourth year students at Texas hospitals for clinical training, but the proposal was tabled as the Texas Medical Association and state officials in Texas raised concerns. Medical professionals like Huppert say clinical training spots in U.S. hospitals should be awarded on merit, not by how much an off-shore medical school is willing to pay.
Huppert is asking the governor and his staff to consider legislation to bar the purchase of clinical slots in teaching hospitals, “to see if we couldn’t take the lead on this is Iowa and shut them down, quite frankly.”
Generally, the first half a a doctor’s training takes place in the classroom and the last half takes place in a hospital setting in clinical rotations.