Medical students hoping to train in cardiothoracic surgery at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center in New York City got some bad news over the weekend: The center will not be able to select residents in Match Day for cardiothoracic surgery.
The center confirmed Monday that it missed the deadline to submit its ranking list for residents in the specialty.
"Due to an inadvertent administrative error, New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center did not submit a rank order list for the cardiothoracic integrated residency program by the National Resident Matching Program's 2017 deadline. The Hospital is committed to all of our graduate medical education programs and we have implemented a process so that this does not happen again," it said in a statement to MedPage Today.
A letter to New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center’s potential residents sent March 2 noted that it had tried to appeal but was unsuccessful.
The National Resident Matching Program would not comment on specifics, but Mona Signer, MPH, president and CEO, told MedPage Today that there was still an opportunity for the center to have cardiothoracic surgery residents in the coming year.
"If a program participating in the Main Residency Match fails to submit a rank order list, it has the option of participating in the Match Week Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program (SOAP)," she said in an email.
Sophia Dellis, a medical student at New York’s Albany Medical College, and her fiancé both got the disappointing news with a phone call from surgeon-in-chief Craig Smith, MD.
“We’re not able to change our list at this point but hopefully we will get another pick. It was up there in the top choices for both of us,” she told MedPage Today, adding “I hope everything works out for the program because it’s an extremely high quality program.”
“Given the limited number of cardiothoracic residency programs in the country, this is a huge upset,” said another medical student who declined to be named. “They will be participating in the SOAP, so some hugely lucky unmatched medical student may snag a spot.”
That a major center would miss out on its top candidates is a problem from several perspectives, commented John Elefteriades, MD, of Yale University in New Haven, Conn.
"It is very important -- for many reasons -- patient safety, advancement of academic missions, and long-term reputation of the program (the best residents become the best surgeon scientists)," he told MedPage Today.
The residency ranking list blunder followed another "human error" last month in which Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health mistakenly sent acceptance letters to 277 potential graduate students that had to be withdrawn.