Physician Retention in the Same State as Residency Training: Data From 1 Michigan GME Institution

In a time of threats to the funding for graduate medical education (GME) and projected physician shortages, drawing attention to the value of physician training programs may be useful. One approach is to study the number and percentage of physicians who enter practice in the state in which they trained.

We sought to examine the percentage of graduates from a single Michigan-based GME institution over a 15-year period, who practiced medicine in Michigan during their career.

We performed a retrospective review of historical data for all graduates currently in practice, derived from 18 GME training programs from 2000 through 2014. Practice location data were collected and confirmed using multiple sources for accuracy.

Data were available for 1168 graduates. The average age at the time of graduation was 32.6 ± 4.4 years (mean and standard deviation [SD]), and 60.2% were men (703 of 1168). There were 546 graduates (46.7%) who practiced in Michigan after graduation. Almost 80% of the graduates (279 of 358) who completed medical school and GME in Michigan also practiced in Michigan. Of those, 87.8% (245 of 279) also completed a bachelor's degree in Michigan.

The findings show that graduates from our GME programs were highly likely to practice in Michigan if they completed their pre-GME education in Michigan.