Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education funding in jeopardy

The 2012 federal budget, offered to Congress on Monday Feb. 14, would eliminate the Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education (CHGME) program.

As Dr. Tom DeWitt discussed here last week, since the program’s inception in 1999, this funding has helped ensure children receive care from pediatric specialists trained to meet their unique health care needs.

“The proposed elimination of the CHGME program would have a dramatic negative effect on the pediatric workforce pipeline at a time when children’s timely access to pediatric care is already impaired,” said Lawrence McAndrews, President and CEO of National Association of Children’s Hospitals, in a statement on February 14th. We couldn’t agree more.

If Congress accepts this version of the budget, Cincinnati Children’s stands to lose $11.7 million annually in funding, putting in jeopardy the medical center’s ability to train approximately 125 full-time equivalent residents and fellows each year.

We’re watching it closely as we know so many others who train new pediatricians are too.