This is a post-script to the story I wrote about a few days ago.

Which makes perfect sense, of course.

The program, set to expire September 30th, is now extended until October 31st while House and Senate conferees work out longer term extensions as part of their work on the DHS spending bill.

The New York Times reports that economic problems at Atlanta's Grady Hospital could have devastating consequences for immigrants serviced by the facility. The article specifically talks about the closure of a free dialysis clinic that is literally a lifeline for a number of immigrant patients who lack access to health care benefits.

Did you forget? Despite the fact that the Senate has approved a three year extension in the DHS appropriations bill, the House and Senate have yet to complete negotiations on a compromise bill. It's pretty likely, however, that the program will be extended in a continuing resolution keeping the government operating.

Here's a description of the project and a link to the code:

AcademyHealth, a non-partisan, scholarly society for health services researchers, policy analysts, and practitioners, launched an initiative to examine the growing practice of international nurse recruitment that has emerged in response to the U.S. nurse shortage. The project sought to reduce the harm and increase the benefits of international nurse recruitment for source countries and to ensure that the rights of migrants are considered throughout the recruitment process.

The project evolved over two years, beginning in September of 2006, and included two complementary activities. During Part I, AcademyHealth researched the emergence, current structure and practices of the nurse recruitment industry. This process included interviews with chief nurse officers and other hospital administrators to understand how they make decisions about whether and how to recruit foreign-educated nurses. Interviews were also conducted with recruiting agencies to solicit information on the history of the industry and its current business models. Additional data sources included a review of recruiter Web sites and the subsequent development of a database of companies. In collaboration with the Commission on Foreign Graduates of Nursing Schools, AcademyHealth also organized focus groups that explored foreign-educated nurses' experience in the recruitment process and solicited their suggestions for improving the process. AcademyHealth's research findings were published in the report, "U.S.-Based International Nurse Recruitment: Structure and Practices of a Burgeoning Industry".

During Part II, AcademyHealth launched a consensus-building process with the goal of developing a draft "standards of practice". In collaboration with the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law a Task Force was convened that included over 30 high level representatives from the hospital, union, nurse training and licensure, foreign nurse and recruiter sectors. The consultative process was observed by several governmental sectors. High level staff from Senators Edward Kennedy and Richard Durbin's offices, as well as representatives from the U.S. Department of State and the Health Resource Services Administration (HRSA) provided comments and support, but did not form part of the deliberations.

There was widespread agreement among Task Force members that international recruitment needs to be conducted in an ethical way that balances diverse stakeholder. Although this group had differing-and sometimes conflicting-perspectives, they nonetheless were able to identify common principals.

This phase of the project concluded with the official release of the Voluntary Code of Ethical Conduct for the Recruitment of Foreign-Educated Nurses to the United States on September 4 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

Wow. An Australian university and a US health care system are collaborating on the creation of a new medical school in New Orleans. Doctors will train for two years in Australia and two years here and will graduate with an MBBS degree. Graduating doctors will be eligible to enter US residency programs as well as programs in Australia. The program mainly will focus on US applicants and not Australians or others.

The American Medical Association's International Medical Graduate Section has issued two resolutions regarding foreign physicians. One calls for the creation of a new federal program to facilitate the retraining of physicians who enter the US using the refugee program. A second resolution calls on Congress to make all physicians who complete medical training in the US eligible for permanent residency.

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