Hannah Henson's name rang out Friday.
But unlike those before her, the 26-year-old University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences senior picked up the white envelope that bore her neatly printed name and walked back to her table. There, her husband Matt Williams was waiting for his name to be called.
"I got back to the table and held it," she said, of the unopened envelope that would determine the couple's future.
The newlyweds were two of the 157 UAMS seniors at the Embassy Suites ballroom in Little Rock anxiously awaiting the day, known as Match Day, when medical students learn where they will be "matched" for their postgraduate residency training. The two were hoping to get into the same hospital -- one with good programs in psychiatry, for her, and anesthesiology, for him -- or at least hospitals in the same city.
Match Day is a nationwide event held annually on the third Friday of March at 11 a.m. CST. Just minutes before, Dr. Richard Wheeler carried a briefcase to the podium holding all the envelopes. And seconds before, UAMS' executive associate dean for academic affairs led the hundreds of students and their families to a countdown to the start of the festivities.
"I will know what [the students] will want to do, and I get the list the day before they do," said Wheeler, who has participated in the event for the past 28 years. "I just know how excited they're going to be. It never gets old."
This year, 34,905 applicants nationwide were hoping to be matched to 27,293 residency positions. Matches aren't guaranteed because there are more applicants than positions. The positions draw applicants from across the country and even internationally.
The number of positions has been capped for years, and while there's been talk about increasing that number, there's been no change, Wheeler said.
Residency salaries are paid by the hospital, which is later reimbursed through federally funded Medicare. Some hospitals have gone out on a limb and paid residents' salaries on their own, Wheeler said. The salaries depend on the resident's year and specialty, but the average salary for a UAMS resident physician is $51,000.
Of UAMS' senior medical students, 13 were told Monday that they were not matched.
Those students get a list of all the residency programs nationwide that aren't filled. They then enter the Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program, which allows the students to apply for vacant spots.
It's a more civilized procedure than what was known as the "scramble," Wheeler said. In the past, seniors who didn't match would jump on the phone looking for vacancies, he said. The result is the same.
"We would love to get all of our students in," Wheeler said. "And eventually all of them do get in. It's just a painful process to go through."
Students who weren't matched learned Wednesday whether they were accepted into a program and had two hours to decide whether to accept the position. As of Friday, three students had accepted positions through the supplemental program, and 10 were still looking.
The week's events are the result of hundreds of applications and day-long interviews, sometimes back to back.
"It's a six-month process," said Teri Moak, who was matched to a plastic surgery program at Washington University in St. Louis. "It's one of the most exciting, intense, nerve-racking processes I've ever been through."
Moak received her envelope, reading aloud her residency at the podium and raising the letter high afterward.
Catherine Myers, 26, couldn't hide her excitement.
The Little Rock native shrieked and jumped up and down when she learned she matched to an internal-medicine program at Case Western University in Cleveland. As she walked away from the lectern, Myers wiped away tears from her eyes, saying she didn't know what to expect after a grueling four years.
"This is one of the best moments I've ever experienced in my life," she said.
Henson and Williams were one of 1,035 couples wanting to be matched together this year, according to data from the National Residency Matching Program. The two met during their undergraduate years at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
They'd been good friends and later attended UAMS, when they started dating. Williams had asked Henson to a winter dance, beginning their love for the month of December. As if fate didn't push the two together, the couple was placed in the same block in their third year, having the same rotations at the same time.
Their psychiatry rotations intrigued Henson.
"In that patient population, having a mental illness is just a pervasive thing in a person's life, really," the Hot Springs native said. "To me, I like the idea of trying to help somebody in that department and trying to turn their whole life around. I find it a humanizing field."
She married Williams on Dec. 20 -- in the middle of the hustle and bustle during the interview season.
Couples can link their preference lists of hospital programs in hopes of matching together. The couple interviewed at the same 12 hospitals -- but always at different times -- and linked their lists, with UAMS as one of their top choices.
"It's so difficult for one match, and it's even more difficult to try to match two," Henson said.
Then, they waited -- for two months.
On Monday, they got an email during their clinical rotations and opened it on their phones: they both matched.
It wasn't until Friday that they would know if they matched together.
Announcers called random clusters of five to 10 students up to the podium, where they would learn their destinations.
When Williams' name was called Friday, the Fort Smith native and his wife snaked their way to the podium at the front of the ballroom. There, they opened their envelopes together and Williams announced their home: UAMS.
"That was one of our top choices. It's so anxiety-provoking to know where you're going to be the next years of your life," Henson said. "It's great that we're together and staying in the same place."
Metro on 03/21/2015