Match results for Illinois family medicine continued showing signs of improvement for our residency programs.  According to NRMP, Illinois Family Medicine Residency Programs filled 95.9 percent (142/148) of available positions, an increase from 91.3 percent in 2007.    Illinois residency Match fill rates have increased each year since filling 77.4 percent in 2004.    

Preliminary information available from the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) indicates that the 2008 national fill rate for family medicine residency programs is 2,404 positions filled out of 2,654 positions offered (90.6%). This represents an increase of two percent in the percentage of family medicine residency positions filled through the NRMP over 2007.  

Link to results, charts and analysis at the AAFP web site’s Match section at http://www.aafp.org/online/en/home/residents/match.html  

Residency program results by region and state:  http://www.aafp.org/online/en/home/residents/match/fillrate.html       

Illinois Medical School graduates show a dip in family medicine matches. 

It was a mixed bag for Illinois medical schools in the 2008 Match.  Some Chicago medical schools showed marked increases in the number of family medicine graduates, while some of the other schools who traditionally produce high numbers of family physicians saw some drop in their numbers this year.  The net result was a nearly one percent decrease in the percentage of Illinois medical school graduates choosing family medicine.  

Percentage of Illinois graduates who chose FM residencies  

See accompanying chart for individual school match rates click here

More family physicians bodes well for patient care

Growing evidence supports that an increase in the number of primary care physicians results in better quality health services at lower cost for the population.  AAFP adopted its workforce policy in 2006 to identify the number of family physicians that should be produced by 2020 in order to produce and prepare the physician workforce best equipped to provide the type of care that the nation states that it wants and needs.  That report indicates that Illinois will need a 28 percent increase in family physicians by 2020 to meet growing patient population needs.  The optimum ratio is 41.6 family physicians per 100,000 persons.