Federal budget cuts and teaching<\/a>
\nhospitals,\u201d (May 6, 2018, Policy and Medicine: A Rockpointe Publication). The article went in
\ndepth about a 2018 congressional proposal that could cut over, \u201c$60 billion in Medicare
\npayments for graduate medical education at our nation\u2019s teaching hospitals,\u201d and could
\nnegatively impact patient care and the future of medicine. Additionally, the article touched on
\nhow there is already a shortage of doctors in the U.S. and this budget cut will increase this
\ndeficit. As mentioned in the article, this is an immense problem in general but will become an
\neven larger problem due to our aging population. Also, the article explained how teaching
\nhospitals are essential for training the next generation of doctors that will be able to provide care
\nto Americans for the rest of their lives. In other words, teaching hospitals are an investment in all
\nof our futures.<\/p>\n\nIn December 2021, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) increased funding for
\n1,000 new residency programs in rural and underserved communities (Centers for Medicare and
\nMedicaid, 2021). This is good news, but this increase in funding is not enough. The funding will
\nrun out eventually and we will be back in the same position as we were before: in a shortage of
\nhealth care professionals and available medical services. This will only become a larger problem
\nas the need for medical care and rehabilitation increases during the COVID-19 pandemic.
\nI am an occupational therapy doctoral (OTD) student at the University of Pittsburgh, and
\nI believe that the continued lack of funding for teaching hospitals and medical education will not
\nonly affect doctors and their patients, but also occupational therapists and our patients as well as
\noccupational therapy students. First of all, the article mentioned how UPMC Presbyterian
\nHospital in Pittsburgh would be one of the hospitals most impacted by budget cuts and this is
\nwhere many of us OTD students go for our fieldwork education experience. Fieldwork education
\nis where we receive our hands-on training and experience as future occupational therapists. We
\nare not paid for our fieldwork experience, however, if licensed occupational therapists lost their
\njobs at this hospital it would impact the number of students that are able to attend fieldwork at
\nthis site and care for patients. Lack of funding could also impact other hospitals in Pittsburgh as
\nwell which further decreases the opportunities we have to participate in fieldwork. In other
\nwords, this would negatively impact my ability as a student to deliver occupational therapy
\nservices. Additionally, if the shortage of doctors worsens, there will be less doctors to refer
\npatients to occupational therapy and less doctors to work on teams with occupational therapists
\nto deliver care. And with the pandemic continuing to rage on, this is likely to occur. Thus, this
\nwould also negatively affect my ability to deliver occupational therapy services because this
\ncould impact the number of patients a team of medical professionals, including occupational
\ntherapists, are able to see. Furthermore, this will limit the population\u2019s ability to access
\noccupational therapy services because they will be limited in the amount of medical care they
\nwill be able to receive in general because of the lack of doctors and health care professionals,
\nincluding occupational therapists.<\/p>\n
\nIn conclusion, I agree with the author that the previous congressional legislation to cut
\nthe budgets, as well as the continued lack of funding, of teaching hospitals will negatively impact
\nthe future of medical care and the patient experience. I think it is also important to keep in mind
\nhow a continued lack of funding will cause even bigger issues down the road because of our
\naging population and due to the aftermath of the pandemic. Additionally, I think it is important to
\nrecognize that lack of funding not only impacts physicians, but it also impacts other medical
\nprofessionals like occupational therapists. This is because we are all connected and dependent on
\neach other in this field. We provide the best patient care when we collaborate. Therefore, I hope
\nthat politicians who craft and vote on future legislation continue to view health care professionals
\nas essential and see our need for continued funding because I believe we are the key to a bright
\nand healthy future.
\nSincerely,<\/p>\n
\nNatalie Bullock<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From time to time, we receive letters to the editors on a story.\u00a0 Today we received this well writing letter from Natalie Bullock, Doctor of Occupational Therapy Student, University of Pittsburgh Class of 2024 on an older article that still remains relevant to today’s expanded need for additional healthcare professionals. I would like to address […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14966,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,20],"tags":[1101],"class_list":["post-14965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-organizations","category-cms","tag-new"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.policymed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.policymed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.policymed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.policymed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.policymed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14965"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.policymed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14967,"href":"https:\/\/www.policymed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14965\/revisions\/14967"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.policymed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.policymed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.policymed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.policymed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}