Friday, May 9, 2025
5/9/2025
Rural Residency Planning and Development Program - Eligible Entity Type/Facility Type: Graduate Medical Education Consortium with participating rural site Holzer Health Systems Project Director Name & Contact Information: Paulette, S. Wehner, MD, Vice Dean, GME & DIO 304.691.1817(o), 304.633.7966(m), wehner@marshall.edu, Fax: 304.691.1818 Residency Program Director Name & Contact Information: Stephen Roy, MD, Rural IM Program Director, 304.208.6933 (m), 304.691.1086 (o),Roy31@marshall.edu, fax: 304.691.1818 Program Pathway: General Primary Care and High Need Specialty Residency Specialty Area: Internal Medicine Residency Format: Separately Accredited Rural Track Program (ACGME RTP Type 1) Sponsoring Institution Organization and Location: Marshall Community Health Consortium, 1600 Medical Center Drive, Huntington, WV 25701 https://jcesom.marshall.edu/residents-fellows/marshall-community-health-consortium/ Rural Target Area(s): Central Appalachia: Specifically Southeast Ohio Counties of Athens, Gallia, Jackson, Vinton, Lawrence and Meigs, and WV Mason County. Funding Amount Requested: $750,000 Program Sustainability Option: Medicare FTE Resident Cap Expansion for RTPs (Option 3) Projected Number of Residents 9 (3 per training level) Expected ACGME Accreditation and Residency Matriculation Dates RRC Submission by January 2025 for April 2025 Meeting Consideration. Matriculation July 1, 2026 Funding Priority Points Requested None The Marshall Community Health Consortium (MCHC) proposes to establish a rural internal medicine residency program that is separately accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). The Program will blend training experiences at Cabell Huntington Hospital; an urban 303-bed medical center academic medical center, with rural training at Holzer Health Systems; a 132-bed acute care facility in central Appalachia, in southeast Gallipolis, Ohio. The Consortium has a longstanding relationship with Holzer as a participating site after assisting them with the successful conversion of an Osteopathic Family Medicine Program to AGCME accreditation in 2017. The Consortium has not been awarded as the eligible entity for any HRSA grants, including funding for an Internal Medicine Rural Track Residency program. A complement of three (3) PGY Internal Medicine residents per training year (9 total) is proposed, with the goal to eventually increase the complement to five (5) residents per class. The program will be sustained under Option 3 - Medicare FTE Resident Cap Expansion for RTPs. The need to establish a rural internal medicine residency program in southeast Ohio area of central Appalachia is evident. The lack of primary care physicians in the Appalachian region is well documented at a 12 percent lower rate than the national average. This primary care physician shortage is even more evident at a 40 percent lower rate in the distressed Appalachian counties, compared to the Region’s non-distressed counties. The United States Department of Health and Human Services has projected that by 2025, Ohio will be short 1,200 primary care physicians. Given that most severe health disparities in the U.S. occur in Central Appalachia, more primary care physicians need to be trained and retained in Central Appalachia to care for the rural Appalachian patients who experience higher than national rate levels of cancer, heart disease, hypertension, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and diabetes. Objectives of the proposal are to: 1) Submit for ACGME Review Committee (RC) consideration at its April 2025 RC meeting, 2) Matriculate the inaugural class of residents on July 1, 2026, and, 3) Graduate on June 30, 2029 three (3) Board-eligible internists with demonstrated knowledge, skills, and behaviors to enter autonomous rural practice throughout Central Appalachia. The expected overall outcome of this project is to place Board certified physicians in autonomous practice throughout rural Central Appalachia.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).