The July Effect: Is It Really A Bad Time To Go To The Hospital?

07:57

July 08, 2015

Ten medical schools -- including Harvard, Yale, Columbia and Johns Hopkins -- do not have departments for family medicine. (proimos/Flickr)

Imagine it’s the final game of the season. The stakes are high and suddenly, a quarter of your team is subbed out and replaced with - rookies.

That’s how some people in medicine describe what happens each July when senior residents move on, and a wave of 30,000 or so newly minted doctors begin their residencies at hospitals across the country.

With all these newbies starting to make the rounds, is this a bad time to be a patient? Elana Gordon from The Pulse at Here & Now contributor WHYY in Philadelphia reports.

Read more on the story via WHYY's The Pulse

Reporter

Elana Gordon, health and science reporter for The Pulse at WHYY in Philadelphia. She tweets @Elana_Gordon.

This segment aired on July 8, 2015.