Addressing America’s Healthcare Human Resource Shortage: DeVry Inc. CEO Daniel Hamburger (Part 4)

SM: Let’s talk about medical school programs. After the two years of foundational learning, how do you deliver the portion of the curriculum that needs to be hands-on? What hospitals do you have relationships with?

DH: Our medical school is Ross University. Residency programs depend on the state and speciality of the student. For example, a resdiency in surgery could be done at Cedars-Sinai Medica Center in California, Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, or from another of our 41 hospital partners. You can find the details of residency programs and particiaping hospitals at the Ross University website).

SM: How many students do you have in the medical school program?

DH: We have about 3,000 students and another 1,000 in our veternary schools.

SM: Where are your medical technology programs, and how many students do you have enrolled?

DH: There are 11,000 students enrolled in 19 campuses, primarily in the West. Those programs are provided by Apollo College and Western Career College. Western Career College has eight campuses in the Bay Area. That also follows a similar program of teaching theory and time spent in teaching hospitals. They do their classroom work and have clerkships in a clinic or doctors office.

SM: We have discussed medical doctors, nursing, and medical technology programs. I assume there are shortages in all three categories in the United States?

DH: There are. Health care professions represent 16 of the 30 fastest-growing occupations acccording to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

SM: We are in a situation with 30 million people without jobs, which is 10% unemployment. What is your view of retraining opportunities for these people? How much time would it take to retrain a couple of million people into a health-care discipline?

DH: We could cut 10% unemployment overnight if we had more educational capacity. There are positions like nursing where they are 100,000 job openings today.

SM: What are the total number of available seats across all educational institutions in the United States?

DH: There are 18,000 seats in medical schools. There are a lot more than 18,000 people who want to go to medical school and are qualified. It is an accute shortage. You have hit at the core of why the private sector has a vital role to play in education along with schools. I feel passionate about that.

SM: The public sector cannot scale to solve this challenge. The private sector can.

DH: Exactly. We are providing more capacity. We also have top quality. Our students are passing the National Council Licensure Examination, known as the NCLEX, with very high rates. We have a 95% pass rate. We are also providing access to students who traditionally have not had access to higher education. I am talking about working adults, minority students, and first in family to go to college.

Our medical school is ranked number one in the number of African American doctors graduated. This past year we just passed the three historically black medical colleges. Those are Howard, Meharry, and Morehouse. DeVry University is another great example. It is typcailly ranked in the top 10 of producers of minority graduates. Sometimes I think the focus is on the wrong type of top 10 lists. In many ways the private sector leads the way on providing access. There are 2 million students enrolled in the private sector today.

This segment is part 4 in the series : Addressing America’s Healthcare Human Resource Shortage: DeVry Inc. CEO Daniel Hamburger
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