Medical licensure

They make it surprisingly difficult to get a license to practice medicine. I wonder why.

In my residency program, I am protected by an institutional license to practice medicine. When I move to California, I think I can still use the institutional license but they encourage you to get your own. This also allows you to moonlight.

Last week, I started looking into the process. It became immediately apparent that This Was No Joke. "Allow up to 6 months to get a license." California gives a 10 year window for first applying for a license from the date of your first USMLE (licensing) exam. Mine was....August 1999. Extra documentation and possibly an extra exam may be required if it is longer.

Well, I guess I better get started.

Web application then fill-in PDF application took a few hours to do.
$1330 paid online. You know that is going towards the salaries of the best bureaucracy money can buy, finely trained in the art of rifling through a stack of documents and finding incorrectly filled out spaces and missing forms. Then, printing, collation, pasting (not taping) a photograph (not scanned or otherwise modified and Polaroids not acceptable), then notarization of said forms. Web form and $50 for USMLE transcripts. Forms submitted to the medical school for official diploma and transcript. Forms submitted to the hospital for certification of training, along with hospital seal and notarization. Forms submitted to fellowship to attest to enrollment in training program. Cover letters for all of the above. And everything got mailed off at the beginning of the week.

One last thing to take care of. California requires background checks from the FBI and the state. So I contacted the webmaster to send me fingerprint forms, which I got three days ago. Two days ago, I romped around Baltimore to figure out who could roll some prints. Eventually, I found out that not 3 miles from my house there exists a specific Baltimore City office to do just that.

Unsurprisingly, there are a lot of people in Baltimore who require background checks and fingerprinting. The first time I went to the office, there was a line of an interesting pie-slice of humanity out of the door of the office. That line was just a line to the clerk. After waiting in that line, one had to wait to get fingerprinted. I'd estimate about 100 people waiting, so seeing I had to get the kids in an hour, I left. I went back this morning. I got there nice and early to beat the crowds, only had to wait 1.5 hours (I was 9th in line), paid my $20, and got my fingerprints rolled. Mailed them off this afternoon.

It is a good thing because pretty much starting Saturday, I have solid work until June save the 2 weeks of vacation for the Big Trip. Let's see what parts have to be repeated after the world-class bureaucracy gets their mitts on my application.