San Antonio, Texas-based Methodist Healthcare aims to expand its residency programs as the region battles severe physician shortages and “brain drain,” San Antonio Report reported Nov. 10.
The shortage around the San Antonio area is largely due to brain drain, according to the report, which describes the phenomenon of highly trained professionals leaving the area for better prospects. On average, just a quarter of graduates from the University of Texas Health San Antonio remain in the city after they graduate, according to the report.
Methodists’ graduate medical education program is in its second full year, and will graduate its first 38 residents this year. But the program has big goals for future expansion.
“Our plan is to be one of the largest GME providers in the next decade in South Texas,” Methodist President and CEO Dan Miller told the publication. “The majority of graduates stay in the communities they train. And so what that’ll mean for not just Methodist, but all the health systems in South Texas, will be tremendous.”
Justin Williams, MD, an emergency medicine physician at Methodist who oversees the residency program, told the Report that Texas has in previous years been a net-exporter of medical school graduates. While the trend has improved very recently, he expressed concern that it could slide back without further investments in residency programs.
A 2024 report prepared for the state legislature found that the state is faring better than many others in retaining medical school graduates, but the program is more severe in San Antonio. Grants are one avenue that the region’s medical schools currently use to support program growth, but according to Bryan Alsip, the chief medical officer for University Health in San Antonio, state grants don’t always support medical specialties most needed in the area. This includes gastroenterology, ophthalmology, rheumatology, neurosurgery, vascular specialties and otolaryngology.
“Those are the ones where we do clearly have a shortage,” Dr. Alsip said. “A lot of these funding streams that have helped in the last four or five years bolster some of the primary care residencies for San Antonio, which has been helpful, [but] we don’t have as many higher-end or more specialized residencies, particularly fellowships, that are needed to serve the most acute care patients that we have.”
