HCA Healthcare Magazine - Winter 2019 - 4

Moving
Healthcare
Forward

Physicians and patients alike benefit
from graduate medical education.
t HCA Healthcare, we partner with
physicians because a collaborative healthcare
network helps every patient we serve.
There are many challenges facing healthcare, including
a looming physician shortage. Through our graduate
medical education (GME) program, we're doing our part
to address some of these issues, adding more residents
and fellows to hospital staffs and creating teaching
environments that benefit recent medical school
graduates, veteran doctors and most of all, patients.
GME programs are the clinical training ground for
medical school grads who dedicate three to seven years at
teaching hospitals and associated ambulatory settings to
meet eligibility requirements for medical licensure and
specialty board certification. Dr. Bruce Deighton, our vice
president of graduate medical education, says hospitals
benefit from the ongoing interaction between residents,
attending physicians and faculty, thanks to a robust exchange
of ideas. "It has an elevating influence on patient care, and
we've documented that in a number of ways," he says.
4 | HCAhealthcare.com

The Role of Residents
Residents also play a vital role in adding to the body
of medical research and scholarly activity, says
Jessica Wells, HCA Healthcare's assistant vice president
of research and education. "The original intent, from
the accrediting body, is that it's the academic arm of
medicine. So we help propel medical sciences and
technologies forward."
A recent example, says Dr. Deighton, is the work of
HCA Healthcare resident physicians in Ocala, Fla., to
improve criteria for blood contamination. That enhanced
process is now being adopted by our other hospitals in the
North Florida Division, reducing the risk of infection.
Although many agree that having residents working
alongside attending physicians is a good idea, the number
of residency positions hasn't increased significantly for
more than two decades due to a cap on Medicare-funded
resident slots in 1997. That's a problem because without
residency training, a medical school graduate can't get
licensed or board-certified.
http://www.HCAhealthcare.com
HCA Healthcare Magazine - Winter 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of HCA Healthcare Magazine - Winter 2019
