This week, the Florida Safety Net Hospital Alliance (Safety Net Hospital) released a groundbreaking report on Florida Hospital’s physician training programs and how well they are measured. The first report on GME Match Rates and Quality at Florida Hospital provides a database assessment of the quality of Florida Graduate Medical Education (GME) programs. One of the report’s key findings shows that hospitals in Florida have dramatically increased the number of GME residency positions available in recent years. The report also shows that more medical school alumni are choosing to reside in safety net hospitals at any other type of Florida hospital.
The Safety Net Hospital Alliance of Florida members includes Ascension Florida: (Ascension St. Vincent, Ascension Sacred Heart), Broward Health, Halifax Health, Jackson Health System, Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, Lee Health, Memorial Health System, Mount Sinai Medical Center, Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, Orlando Health Health Health Health Health, Uff Health Health Therm Jacksonville.
Justin Sr. of SNHAF, “Florida hospitals have made great strides in increasing the number of healthcare workers each year. Our members are the top hospitals in the state and in the country. Therefore, it is not surprising that more doctors will choose to run a residency program with us elsewhere. The forecast shortage of Florida for 2035 means Florida is one of the top four states in the country to maintain doctors worth residing here.”
The report reveals that Safety Net Hospital Alliance members have generated significantly higher match rates than Florida’s overall match rates, and higher than national match rates. GME Match Rate measures the success of a hospital to fill empty residency slots. Research across the country has shown that high concordance rates correlate with high quality of hospital programs.
SNHAF President & COO Lindy Kennedy said, “In the GME Match Process, medical graduates choose hospital GME programs that medical school alumni want to train. At the same time, hospitals identify medical school graduates who want to accept into the GME program. The GME programs of member hospitals are extremely popular and produce the highest match rates each year.”
The senior added: “Florida policymakers have proven that investment in GMEs will increase the number of physicians providing care to Floridians.
Safety Net Hospital generates a 93.8% match rate over five years.
GME match data recorded by the National Residency Match Program (NRPM) reveals that over the past five years (2020-2024), they have dominated GME by matching 6,632 new residents. In other words, Safety Net Hospital has filled over 93.8% of its residents’ slots. This is significantly higher than the statewide agreement rate of 87.18%.
The report highlights show the following of hospitals that have surpassed the statewide agreement rate over five years total:
Members of the Safety Net Hospital Alliance have produced some of the highest match rates in the state.
Six of the eight hospitals that produce more than 350 matches are members of Safety Net Alliance.
Of the 13 hospitals that produce more than 200 matches, eight are Safety Net Alliance members.
Four of the 10 hospitals that achieve a 100% match rate each year are not members of the Safety Net Alliance while running multiple GME programs, but are members of the Safety Net Alliance who have just begun to offer GME over the past decade.
Another important finding is that hospitals that produce more than 200 matches are all for-profit or public hospitals except for all but one hospital.
Safety Net Hospital generates matching fees beyond state and national rates
Last year alone, alliance members at Safety Net Hospital matched 1,403 new residents with an overall match rate of 91.5%. That’s 5% points, surpassing Florida’s 2024 game rate of 86.48% and national game rate of 91.24%.
Kennedy added: “We live in one of the fastest growing states in the United States, and we have a critical need for more doctors to take care of us. The governor and the legislature understand that we will strengthen Florida’s GME infrastructure, so we have been wisely investing in programs to expand our physician training pipeline. Our members are proving that we can run high-quality GME programs and produce a generation of Florida’s best physicians.”
SNHAF Hospital has donated $1 billion to the GME program
Members of the Safety Net Hospital Alliance have donated more than $1 billion to state funding to help pay for the GME program. So far, members of the Safety Net Hospital Alliance have voluntarily paid for the creation of 2,873 new doctor training slots at hospitals across the state. Safety Net Hospital has trained most of Florida physicians and is pleased that the investments in which UF Health Shand and Jackson Health System fund the statewide GME Startup Bonus Program are enjoying tangible benefits for Florida people. Since the launch of the GME Startup Bonus Program in 2015, hospitals in our state (and non-members of safety net members) have used the program to add GME to services that provide communities.
Last spring, Florida’s Safety Net Hospital Alliance announced the creation of 663 new GME doctors training slots through the startup bonus program. These new GME positions will be used to train physicians in certain medical specialties that are severely short in Florida. When funding for the GME program began, there were 43 hospitals in our state providing physician training. Today, 84 hospitals and community health clinics offer GME.
