Graduate Medical Education Funding & Curriculum in PM&R: A Survey of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Department Chairs

Abstract This national survey highlights graduate medical education funding sources for PM&R residency programs as well as: perceived funding stability; alignment of the current funding and educational model; the need of further education in post-acute care settings; and the practice of contemporary PM&R graduates as perceived by PM&R department/division chairs. About half of the reported PM&R residency positions appear to be funded by Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS); over 40% of PM&R chairs believe their residency program is undersized and nearly a quarter feel at risk for losing positions. A total of 30% of respondents report PM&R resident experiences in home health, 15% in long-term acute care, and 52.5% in a skilled nursing facility/subacute rehabilitation facility. In programs that do not offer these experiences, a majority of chairs feel this training should be included. In addition, study results suggest that a majority of PM&R graduates work in an outpatient setting. Based on the results that chairs strongly feel the need for resident education in post-acute care settings and that a majority of graduates go on to practice in outpatient settings, there is a potential discordance for our current CMS GME funding model being linked to the acute care setting. Author Disclosures: All authors state no competing interests, funding, grants or equipment provided for the project from any source; nor financial benefits to the authors. There are no previous presentations or submissions of this research. Copyright © 2017 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.

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