1,180 Counties Lack a General Surgeon
This analysis synthesizes 7 sources published the week ending Sep 30, 2026. Editorial analysis by the PhysEmp Editorial Team. The U.S. has more clinicians than it did a decade ago, and more than 15 million Americans still live in a county with no general surgeon. Those two facts sit uneasily together, and the gap between […]
The Paperwork That Decides Your Start Date: Licensure Disclosures, Background Checks, Credentialing, and Visa Timing
The gap between signing a contract and seeing your first patient is filled with licensure applications, credentialing packets, and bureaucratic timelines that most residents don’t understand until they’ve already missed a start date. This is the administrative map—disclosure questions, document collection, visa sequencing, and the month-by-month countdown that determines whether you start in August or October.