 |
 |
|
|
We joined colleagues recently in a discussion on the perennial issue of the failure of psychiatry residencies to attract quality residents in adequate numbers. We were aware that the problems have persisted for more than a decade.
As a cross-section of physicians, we gathered and, surprisingly, agreed. We said that the problem was money. We reviewed, moreover, the difficulties and matriculation pitfalls of psychiatry residencies. We differed in our approaches to academic and educational instruction.
The agreement regarding money was uncomfortable. Were we too proud to ignore reality? We asked when the elected leaders of our profession might seriously address and effect the issue of appropriate payment for psychiatric work? When will psychiatry be proactive rather than reactive to the forces changing medicine today?
No significant intelligence is necessary to understand this problem. If payers remunerate psychiatrists comparably to surgical subspecialties, pathologists, anesthesiologists, or radiologists, perhaps we would alter the decline of resident application to psychiatry programs.
Stefan P. Kruszewski, M.D.
Pottsville, Pa.
L. Ari Kopolow, M.D.
Gaithersburg, Md.