Rural Residency Planning and Development Program - Applicant Facility Type: Rural Hospital Program Pathway: General Primary Care and High-Need Specialty Pathway Residency Residency Medical Specialty: Internal Medicine Residency Format: New Rural Residency Program (non-RTP) Sponsoring Institution: Crisp Regional Hospital, Inc. (Cordele, Georgia) (Program Code Pending) Rural Target Counties: Crisp, Dooly, Lee, Sumter, Turner, Wilcox, Worth (GA) Amount Requested: $745,923 Program Sustainability Option: Medicare GME Sustainability Option 3 (Establishing a Medicare FTE Resident Cap for the First Time) Projected Total # of Residents: 6 residents per entering class (18 residents at full complement) Expected ACGME Accreditation & First Resident Matriculation: Expected ACGME Program Accreditation: Sep-Oct 2028; First Resident Matriculation: July 2029 Recent HRSA Awards: Rural Health Clinic Vaccine Confidence Program (Grant # G29RH43146); Community Project Funding/Congressionally Directed Spending - Non-Construction (Grant # GE1HS47169) Crisp Regional Hospital, Inc. ("Crisp"), a nonprofit rural acute care hospital in Cordele, Georgia, requests HRSA Rural Residency Planning and Development (RRPD) funding to establish a new ACGME-accredited Internal Medicine residency program serving seven rural counties in south-central Georgia: Crisp, Dooly, Lee, Sumter, Turner, Wilcox, and Worth. Home to more than 120,000 residents, the region faces persistent physician shortages, high primary care HPSA scores, substantial chronic disease burden, and limited access to specialty care. Three counties have no practicing internal medicine physicians, forcing many patients to travel more than two hours for specialty and hospital-based services. The residency program will create a sustainable rural physician workforce pipeline to improve long-term access to internal medicine care. Crisp will serve as the applicant and proposed ACGME Sponsoring Institution. The Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University (MCG) will serve as the primary academic partner, providing accreditation mentorship, curriculum and faculty development, simulation support, subspecialty planning, and sustainability consultation through a formal subaward. Residents will train primarily at Crisp Regional Hospital and affiliated rural outpatient sites, with more than 50 percent of training occurring in HRSA-designated rural settings. Clinical partners include Atlas Internal Medicine, Crisp Medical & Kidney Care, and MCG's Rural Hospital Virtual Care Network. During the three-year project period, Crisp will: (1) achieve ACGME institutional and program accreditation; (2) finalize a validated Medicare GME Option 3 sustainability plan; and (3) implement a graduate tracking system to monitor physician practice location and career outcomes for at least five years after graduation. Major activities include establishing graduate medical education governance, completing accreditation requirements, developing an ACGME-compliant curriculum, recruiting and developing faculty, executing clinical training agreements, recruiting residents, and implementing performance evaluation and graduate tracking systems. Guided by a comprehensive work plan, three multidisciplinary planning workgroups, quarterly RRPD Technical Assistance Center support, and ongoing collaboration with MCG, Crisp expects to obtain ACGME accreditation, recruit and match its inaugural class of six residents, and matriculate the first class in July 2029. At full implementation, the program will train 18 residents and strengthen the rural physician workforce across south-central Georgia.
