U.S Patients Need More International Medical Graduates

Are you tired of waiting hours to see a doctor? I am sure that everybody has once experienced lengthy wait at doctor offices. The long waiting duration has been getting worse and worse since the American medical system first declared that they were short on doctors twenty years ago. Every day in the news, we often hear that healthcare providers are burnt out, America needs more doctors, or medical schools should produce more doctors for the country. Yet, there are not many articles or news mention about all the negative effects that the shortage has caused to patients. It is true that sometimes we hear people talk about how the shortage affects patients such as longer waiting time and difficulty in finding primary care physicians. The two negative effects, however, are just the tip of the iceberg. Bad quality of healthcare is one of the major problems that physician shortage. In fact, the medical system are not really short on doctors. They always have a backup international medical graduate (IMG) team. They are foreign medical doctors who have successfully passed all the standardization examinations of the U.S. medical board and are eligible to practice medicine right away. Yet, the government hesitates to utilize this great resource, and as such the quality of healthcare is steadily declining (Geyman 1). In addition to the hesitation of utilizing IMGs, patients probably have long been accepting the fact that if we want to see a doctor, we have to wait. Waiting for a long time to see a doctor has automatically become a norm in this country. It is not unusual to see other patients who sitting next to us fall asleep while waiting in the waiting room (Figure 1). 

Figure 1. A crowded emergency department waiting room by Med League.

U.S. patients seem to forget that we have the right to ask for more doctors and better healthcare services. We have been working really hard to contribute to the development of the country; however, what we gain in exchange is just a worsening quality of healthcare. The needs of killing sicknesses have suppressed peoples' consciousness of standing up for their rights and benefits. Twenty years is long enough, and it is time for U.S. patients to stand up for our forgotten rights. We, the patients, need to speak up and ask the government to supply more IMGs in order to ensure a good quality of healthcare for us and everybody in this country.

 IMGs are the Best Choice for Patients in the U.S.A. at the Present

As of 2006, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), “right now, approximately 30 million people live in a federally designated shortage area where there is an inadequate supply of health care providers” (AAMC 2). Although medical schools have been trying to increase admission in order to produce more doctors, there is no way that they can instantly produce enough doctors to serve the 30 million people above. How much longer do patients need to wait to gain full access to healthcare providers? Sickness does not spare any one. It is time for us to fight for our right to health services (Figure 2). 

   

Figure 2. Healthcare is a human right by Joe Brusky via Flickr.

Luckily, the U.S. patients always have support from the IMGs. They are skillful, knowledgeable, and most importantly, they are willing to work in secluded areas where not many United States Medical Graduates (USMGs) would like to practice (Hart et al. 1). Their availability, energy, and medical skills enable them to be the best choice for patients.

Diversity is Very Important in the Melting Pot Country

Figure 3. Happy doctors diverse by Millennial Medicine.

In this melting pot country, the patient population is not only American people. On a daily basis, doctors might encounter with many patients who cannot speak a single word of English. In the article "Pay Now or Pay Later: Providing Interpreter Services in Health Care," Leighton Ku, Professor of Public Policy and Public Administration, acknowledges, “The 2000 census revealed that there were 17.5 million adults and 3.4 million school age children with limited English proficiency in the United States” (Ku and Flores 2). Normally, patients feel more comfortable when they communicate with doctors who look like them, speak their languages, and understand their culture. Doctor Jose Madera expresses the same idea regarding non-English speakers in his article "Reasons to Visit a Multilingual Dentist." He asserts that speaking the same language makes his patients feel more confident in providing more details about their problems (Madera 1). Thus, having more international physicians in the medical workforce not only brings many benefits to the U.S. patients, but also improves the quality of care. 

IMGs Help to Ease the Workload of Burnout Physicians

Figure 4. A stressed out Oncologist by Medscape.

Current healthcare providers are already exhausted. Many doctors report that they are “completely burned out” and that symptom “won’t go away” (Rabin 2). In the article “Physician Burnout: Its Origin, Symptoms, and Five Main Causes,” Doctor Dike Drummond emphasizes that, “Burnout is directly linked to an impressive list of undesirable consequences: lower patient satisfaction and care quality, higher medical error rates and malpractice risk” (Drummond 1). As shown in Figure 5 below, many burnt out physicians are having a strike for being overworked.

Figure 5. Junior Doctors 24 hour strike. Doctor’s demonstrating outside Aintree Hospital, Liverpool by Andrew Teebay via Flickr.

Doctors, nowadays, have to worker longer hours and see more patients. In order to see all patients within their work hour, they have to spend less time with their patients. Doctor Gassner, a Phoenix internist, admits, “I always felt rushed. I always felt I was cutting my patients off” (Rabin 1). There is no doubt that supplying more IMGs to the medical workforce will ease the workload of burnout physicians. As a result, doctors will feel less stressful. They will have more time to talk to their patients, and unarguably, their jobs will be more effective and productive. 

International Medical Graduates or U.S. Medical Graduates?

Some people might think that they want to have more U.S. doctors rather than continue to depend on the foreign physicians (AAMC 9). It is true that each country should have its own medical staff, and relying on foreign resource is not always a good solution. Nevertheless, with a 62,900 physician deficiency, relying on foreign doctors is the only practical choice. Since 2006, America has been trying to build more medical schools and admit more medical students. At first, building more medical schools sounds like a good solution; however, this project requires a lot of local, state, and federal budget, which, of course, comes from tax revenue (AASA 3). Building one medical school is already expensive, and building enough medical schools to produce enough doctors to serve 30 million people might result in an increase in taxes. It is totally unacceptable when everybody has to pay extra for income tax and continue to wait for an undetermined length of time to gain full access to healthcare providers. In contrast to the expensive and lengthy USMG project, utilizing IMGs does not require building any medical schools, and hence, tax payers do not have to worry about paying extra. So far, IMGs are still the best choice for patients at the present.

Furthermore, IMGs provide better quality of care than some USMGs do. In the article “Evaluating The Quality of Care Provided by Graduates of International Medical Schools,” John Norcini points out, “Our analysis of 244,153 hospitalizations in Pennsylvania found that patients of doctors who graduated from international medical schools and were not U.S. citizens at the time they entered medical school had significantly lower mortality rates than patients cared for by doctors who graduated from U.S. medical schools or who were U.S. citizens and receive their degree abroad” (Norcini et al. 1). It is clear that the quality of care provided by IMGs is superb, and there is no doubt that IMGs are the doctors that U.S. patients need.  

ACT NOW

Healthcare is a human right. Act right now to get the most benefits from international physicians. Below is a link of a petition which appeals legislators to allow more international medical graduates to join the U.S. medical workforce. Sign the petition and help to share the link to everybody so that we can collect 100,000 signatures by May 17 2016.

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/allow-more-international-medical-graduates-join-us-medical-workforce

Sickness does not spare anyone, so act right now before it is too late.

Works Cited

American Medical Association. “Help Wanted: More U.S. Doctors.” AAMC. 2006. Google Scholar. Web. 30 Mar. 2016.

Brusky, Joe. “Healthcare Is a Human Right.” Flickr. 24 Sep. 2014. Web. 1 Apr. 2016.

“Doctor-Stressed-Depressed.” JPEG. Medscape. 24 Jul. 2014. Web. 1 Apr. 2016.

Drummond, Dike. “Physician Burnout: Its Origin, Symptoms, and Five Main Causes.” Family Pratice Management. 2015. Google Scholar. Web. 30 Mar. 2016.

Geyman, John. “The Decline of  Primary Care: The Silent Crisis Undermining U.S. Health Care.”

Hart , L. Gary, Susan M. Skillman, Meredith Fordyce, Matthew Thompson, Amy Hagopian, and Thomas R. Konrad. “International Medical Graduate Physicians in the United States: Changes since 1981.” Health Affairs. 2007. Google Scholar. Web. 30 Mar. 2016.

Ku. Leighton, and Glenn Flores. “Pay Now or Pay Later: Providing Interpreter Services in Health Care.” Health Affair. n.d. Google Scholar. Web. 30 Mar, 2016.

League, Med. “A Crowded Emergency Department Waiting Room.” Medleague. 17. Feb. 2014. Web. 1 Apr. 2016.

Madera, Jose. “Reasons to Visit a Multilingual Dentist.” Guide to Dentistry. 4 Apr. 2011. Web. 30 Mar. 2016.

Norcini, John J., John R. Boulet, W. Dale Dauphinee, Amy Opalek, Ian D. Krantz, and Sunzanne T. Anderson. “Evaluating the Quality of Care Provided by Graduates of International Medical Schools.” Health Affair. Aug. 2010. Google Scholar. Web. 30 Mar. 2016.

Physician for a National Health Program. 9 Aug. 2011. Google Scholar. Web. 30 Mar. 2016.

Rabin, Roni Caryn. “Burnt Out Primary Care Docs are Voting with Their Feet.” Kaiser Health News. 1 Apr, 2014. Google Scholar. Web. 30 Mar. 2016.

Teebay, Andrew. “Junior Doctor 24 Hour Strike. Doctor’s Demonstrating Outside Aintree Hospital, Liverpool.” Flickr. n.d. Web. 1 Apr. 2016.