This week, the Safety Net Hospital Alliance of Florida (Safety Net Hospitals) announced its groundbreaking report on Florida hospitals’ physician training programs and how well they measure up. The first-of-its-kind report Florida Hospital GME Match Rates & Quality, provides a data-based assessment of the quality of Florida’s Graduate Medical Education (GME) programs. One of the report’s important findings shows Florida hospitals have dramatically increased the number of available and filled GME residency positions in recent years. The report also shows that more medical school graduates are choosing to do their residency at Safety Net Hospitals over any other type of Florida hospital.
Safety Net Hospital Alliance of Florida members include Ascension Florida: (Ascension St. Vincent’s, Ascension Sacred Heart), Broward Health, Halifax Health, Jackson Health System, Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, Lee Health, Memorial Healthcare System, Mount Sinai Medical Center, Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, Orlando Health, Sarasota Memorial Health Care System, Tampa General Hospital, UF Health Shands and UF Health Jacksonville.
SNHAF CEO Justin Senior said, “Hospitals in Florida have made enormous strides in increasing the number of medical residents each year. Our members are the top hospitals in the state and the country, so it is no surprise that more physicians-in-training are choosing to do their residency programs with us over any other place. What is most exciting is not only that we get to keep top talent in Florida, but also that the more we train residents here, the more we will be able to head off Florida’s projected shortfall in physicians predicted for 2035. Florida is among the Top 4 states in the nation for retaining physicians who do their residency here. That is worth bragging about.”
The report reveals that Safety Net Hospital Alliance members’ produce a Match Rate that is significantly higher than Florida’s overall Match Rate and higher than the national Match Rate. GME Match Rates measure hospitals’ success in filling their empty residency slots. National research has shown that high Match Rates correlate to high quality in a hospital’s program.
SNHAF President & COO Lindy Kennedy said, “In the GME Match process, medical school graduates select the hospital GME programs where they hope to train; at the same time hospitals are identifying the medical school graduates they would like to accept into their GME programs. We know that the quality level of a hospital’s GME program is the main thing medical school graduates consider when preparing the list of the hospitals where they hope train. It’s something to celebrate that our member hospitals’ GME programs are highly sought-after and produce the highest Match Rates year after year.”
Senior added, “Florida policy makers have proven that investing in GME increases the number of doctors providing care to Floridians. When this investment began in 2014, the number of GME residency slots had consistently hovered at 3,000 FTEs each year. Over the last 10 years that number has more than doubled as there are now over 7,150 new doctor training slots in Florida.”
Safety Net Hospitals Produce 93.8% Match Rate over 5-Year Period.
GME Match data recorded by the National Residency Match Program (NRPM), reveals that over the last five years (2020-2024) Safety Net Hospital Alliance members dominated GME by Matching 6,632 new residents. That means Safety Net Hospitals filled more than 93.8% of their resident slots, which is considerably higher than the state overall Match Rate of 87.18%.
Highlights from the Report show that of the hospitals producing above the state overall Match Rate during the combined five-year period:
Safety Net Hospital Alliance members produced some of the highest Match Rates in the state.
Six of the eight hospitals producing over 350 Matches are Safety Net Alliance members.
Eight of the thirteen hospitals producing over 200 Matches are Safety Net Alliance members.
Four of the ten hospitals achieving a 100% Match Rate every year while operating more than one GME program are not just Safety Net Alliance members, but they are Safety Net Alliance members that only just began providing GME in the last 10 years.
Another key finding is that all but one (12 of 13) hospital producing over 200 Matches is a not-for-profit or public hospital.
Safety Net Hospitals Produce Match Rates Above State and National Rates
Last year alone, Safety Net Hospital Alliance members matched 1,403 new residents for an overall Match Rate of 91.5% — that’s 5+ percentage points above Florida’s 2024 Match Rate of 86.48%, and above the national Match Rate of 91.24%.
Kennedy added, “We live in one of the fastest growing states in the US and have a critical need for more doctors to care for us. The Governor and the Legislature have wisely invested in programs to expand the doctor training pipeline because they understand that enhancing Florida’s GME infrastructure is by far the best way to ensure we all have access to a doctor when we need one. This report shows why Safety Net Hospital Alliance members have been the State’s primary partners in this effort. Our members have proven time and again they operate high quality GME programs and produce generations of Florida’s best doctors.”
SNHAF Hospitals Contribute $1 Billion to GME Program
Safety Net Hospital Alliance members have contributed over $1 billion to state coffers to help pay for GME programs. Thus far, Safety Net Hospital Alliance members have voluntarily paid for the creation of 2,873 new doctor training slots at hospitals all across the state. Safety Net Hospitals train the bulk of Florida’s doctors and are gratified that the investment made by UF Health Shands and Jackson Health System to finance the statewide GME Startup Bonus Program is reaping tangible benefits for the people of Florida. Since the inception of the GME Startup Bonus Program in 2015, hospitals across our state – Safety Net members and non-members alike – have used the program to add GME to the services they provide their communities.
Last spring, the Safety Net Hospital Alliance of Florida announced the creation of 663 new GME physician training slots via the Startup Bonus Program. These new GME positions will be used to train doctors in the specific medical specialties that are in severe shortage in Florida. When the GME program funding support began, there were 43 hospitals providing doctor training in our state. Today, 84 hospitals and community health clinics provide GME.
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