Northeast Georgia Medical Center has received initial accreditation from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education for its Family Medicine residency program.
This is NGMC’s third Graduate Medical Education program to receive initial accreditation, following last January’s announcement about the Internal Medicine and General Surgery residency programs.
“We are excited to add Family Medicine residencies to our program and proud to continue developing a GME program that is hardwired for excellence,” said John Delzell, MD, vice president of Medical Education for Northeast Georgia Health System and Designated Institutional Official for NGMC. “We look forward to training future generations of physicians and retaining the best and brightest to care for our community.”
NGMC anticipates interviewing approximately 200 Family Medicine residency candidates from October 2019 through January 2020. Twelve residents will match with NGMC through the National Residency Matching Program in March 2020, and they will begin their first day of residency on July 1, 2020.
“This accreditation comes after months of hard work from our entire team,” said Monica Newton, DO, Family Medicine program director. “Currently, only 25 percent of graduates of Georgia medical schools stay here to practice. We are now closer to our goal of changing the course of health care for our region, state and country by producing exceptionally trained family physicians and keeping them close to home to relieve the physician shortage.”
The Family Medicine residency program at NGMC received ACGME accreditation by successfully completing surveys that include evaluations of program personnel, faculty, institutional safety and quality metrics, curriculum, the learning and working environment and more.
The accreditation process for NGMC’s Family Medicine residency program was led by Dr. Newton; Lisa Carter, Family Medicine residency program coordinator; Dr. Delzell; and Donna Brown, director of GME.
NGMC plans to continue expanding its GME program by seeking accreditation for three additional specialties: OB/GYN, psychiatry and emergency medicine. By 2024, all six specialties could host more than 170 residents – which would make the program one of the largest in the state of Georgia.
For more information about NGMC’s Family Medicine residency program, visit www.NGMCgme.org/programs/family-medicine.
