When most of us think of March Madness, our minds go to brackets, bets and NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball. But, for more than 28,000 medical school graduates each year, March Madness is all about Residency Match Day.
Last year, CHS made a commitment to expand its Graduate Medical Education (GME) offerings – and with the 2023 Match upon us, we are proud of our focus and recent growth in this area.
Our GME purpose is twofold. First, we are building a pipeline of qualified clinicians with the goal of keeping them within the organization upon completion of their residencies. The latest data shows more than half of residents remain in the state where they train and many stay in the same community and with the same hospital. The other benefit of GME programs is to give physicians on the medical staff an opportunity to work in a teaching environment.
Under our GME Sponsoring Institution, Health Education Services, four new residency programs successfully achieved new accreditation by the ACGME (Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education) in 2022. These new residency programs – located at Northwest Health in Valparaiso, Indiana, Northwest Healthcare in Tucson, Arizona and two at Crestwood Medical Center in Huntsville, Alabama – join 29 active residency training programs already operating across CHS health systems.
The new programs will bring our total number of residents across the enterprise to nearly 400, with a full 80% pursuing Internal or Family Medicine programs.
“When we launch our new program, we will be the first residency training program in Northwest Indiana,” said Ashley Dickinson, CEO of Northwest Healthcare. “We are starting with a family medicine program and anticipate many of the doctors we train in the coming years will put down roots here, growing our primary care base and adding access and services for our community.”
It can be especially difficult to recruit physicians to smaller, more rural communities. But, good GME programs can help offset physician shortages in those communities.
Ugonna Ezeh, DO, was a mechanical engineer in Nigeria who moved to the United States, graduated pre-med from Harvard and completed medical school at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. When it came time for his residency program, he matched with MountainView Regional Medical Center in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Today, he is an orthopedic surgeon with MountainView Medical Group, specializing in minimally invasive and robotic-assisted hip and knee joint replacement.
“Las Cruces reminded me of home and I just felt comfortable here,” says Ugonna. “Add to that the deeply talented and committed physicians who trained and mentored us, my wife and I knew this warm and welcoming community was where we wanted to be.”
CHS isn’t slowing down when it comes to medical education. Additional programs in more markets will pursue accreditation in 2023 and 2024.
“By the year 2025, we hope to offer training spots to over 600 residents annually,” says Jason Thurman, M.D., CHS Vice President of Graduate Medical Education. “Expansion of our residency programs and other medical education is a key initiative for CHS as we do our part to address the nation’s ever-increasing need for well-qualified and expertly-trained physicians.”