Athens Reporter

Northeast Georgia Health System issued the following announcement on Mar. 21. 

More physicians are on the way to care for people across the region, as Northeast Georgia Medical Center (NGMC) learned Friday who is joining the newest class of resident physicians this summer.

This fourth class of residents spans five specialties. Six General Surgery, 20 Internal Medicine, 12 Family Medicine, 12 Emergency Medicine and six Psychiatry residents will start with NGMC on July 1. This new class brings the total to 139 residents caring for patients and furthering their training to be the physician leaders of tomorrow.

NGMC welcomes:

General Surgery Residents – Medical School and Home State/Country

Internal Medicine Residents – Medical School and Home State/Country

Family Medicine Residents – Medical School and Home State/Country

Emergency Medicine Residents – Medical School and Home State/Country

Psychiatry Residents – Medical School and Home State/Country

In the months leading up to Friday, medical students participating in the National Resident Matching Program applied to residency programs and interviewed at hospitals across the nation. After those interviews, residency programs ranked the students – and students ranked the programs. Both rank lists were plugged into a national database which crunches the numbers to determine which of the students match with NGMC. Those results are released on Match Day, which was Friday.

“Our health system and our patients have come to rely on our residents, over the past two years especially,” says John E. Delzell, Jr., MD, MSPH, vice president of Medical Education for Northeast Georgia Health System and Designated Institutional Official for NGMC. “It was during our COVID-19 waves that the benefit of having residents was felt the most. Whether it was bringing the latest knowledge with them from medical school and asking those important questions, to holding the hands of our sickest patients, NGMC residents have made an impact and are resilient. Our new class will be mentored by the best and brightest for sure.”

            Resident physicians who have matched into the Emergency Medicine and Psychiatry residency programs make up the inaugural class for these two specialties at NGMC.

            “NGMC and Georgia Emergency Department Services (GEDS) are tremendously excited to welcome its first class of Emergency Medicine residents,” says Dr. Josh Mugele, program director for the Emergency Medicine residency program. “Our new residents are coming from top-tier medical schools from around the country. Their training will include working with EMS systems, responding to disasters, and learning how to care for all types of critically ill patients. They will also be involved in research to increase the science of emergency medicine, all of this in service to our patients. I truly believe that NGMC is poised to be one of the best places to receive emergency care in the country.”

            Dr. Kalpana Prasad, program director of the Psychiatry residency program was equally excited for her new residency class.

“For the last several months, our team has been working on something very exciting,” says Dr. Prasad. “Together, we created a vision that I really care about and believe in—training doctors to become robust psychiatrists and future leaders of mental health. This has been a great need in the state of Georgia, especially in our region.”

Resident physicians are licensed doctors training in a specialty. They train for three to 10 years after medical school, providing patient care and performing procedures under appropriate supervision. They can write orders and prescribe medication. Residents also have educational, testing and evaluation requirements. Their training is overseen by Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.

“Our residents will work with our faculty, hospital and clinic staff in numerous ways. We look forward to welcoming all our new resident physicians to the local community and introducing them to patients,” says Dr. Delzell.

NGMC is working to expand to more than 200 residents across five specialties – internal medicine, family medicine, general surgery, emergency medicine, and psychiatry – by 2024. That will make NGMC one of the largest graduate medical education programs in the state. The idea is to train the physician leaders of tomorrow right here in Hall County, so that they will stay to practice in this region and the state.

Original source can be found here.

Source: Northeast Georgia Health System