Modern Healthcare: Obstetrics faces declines in residency applicants, services

Modern Healthcare: Obstetrics faces declines in residency applicants, services

OBHG's Chief Medical Officer Dr. Mark Simon recently spoke with Modern Healthcare, discussing how the current political climate regarding women’s reproductive health has affected the OB/GYN field, trends in OB/GYNs leaving the field and how to make the specialty more appealing to aspiring doctors.

Click here to read the full article, and see below for a preview of his quotes:

To Dr. Mark Simon, chief medical officer at Ob Hospitalist Group, an OB-GYN hospitalist provider operating in 36 states, the reduced interest in the specialty is not surprising.

“When you go into a residency, you want to learn full scope for your specialty, whatever that is, and for OB-GYN that includes abortion care,” Simon said. “The other component of that is, who really wants to go to a location where they could potentially be subject to civil or criminal penalties for doing their job?”

Since most doctors practice medicine where they complete their residency, Simon said he is concerned about what the shift could mean for the medical workforce in restrictive states. “It is a challenge for those states because it's going to create even more difficulty for them in recruiting obstetricians or obstetrical clinicians who would provide that care to the population,” he said.