UM Shore Medical Center at Easton has passed another milestone in its transition to a Community Academic Medical Center, according to William Huffner, MD, senior vice president, Medical Affairs and chief medical officer, UM Shore Regional Health. In collaboration with the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Department of Emergency Medicine and funding from UM Memorial Hospital Foundation, Shore Regional Health has inaugurated a residency program in emergency care for medical residents in their second or third year of training who are interested in gaining experience in rural community emergency medicine.
The new program,through which medical residents (one or two at a time) work in the UM Shore Medical Center at Easton Emergency Department and Shore Emergency Center at Queenstown for four weeks, offers several benefits. “These residents will get a real taste of rural emergency medicine that offers a lot of direct experience with patients, and while they are here, they get a feel for our community and the quality of life in our five-county region has to offer,” said Dr. Huffner. “This will support our efforts in recruiting emergency care physicians to our hospitals in the same way that our Physician Assistant Rotation Program, offered in collaboration with Anne Arundel Community College and University of Maryland at Baltimore, helped us recruit several physician assistants after they completed their PA clinical studies at Shore Regional Health.”
L-R: Brennan Ellis, MD, residency program director for Eastern Shore Emergency Medicine Physicians, Gregory Dashani, MD, who completed his residency at UM SMC in Easton, and Walter Atha, MD, regional director, Emergency Medicine for UM SRH.
Brian Browne, MD, FACEP, chair, Emergency Medicine at UM School of Medicine and physician in chief, Statewide Emergency Medicine Services, was very involved in the establishment of the residency program at UM Shore Medical Center at Easton, working with Dr. Huffner, Walter Atha, MD, regional director, Emergency Medicine at UM SRH, and UM SRH emergency department directors Glenn Hebel, MD, Eric Maniago, MD, Jane Wang, MD and Steven White, MD. “Offering this residency program expands the types of experiences as well as setting in which our residents can train,” said Dr. Brown. “It also further integrates Shore Regional Health with the University of Maryland Medical System, University of Maryland Medical Center and the UM School of Medicine.”
UM Memorial Hospital Foundation has played a key role in bring the residency program to life, according to Graham Lee, vice president, Philanthropy at UM SRH. “The Board recognized this as an important opportunity for our emergency care team to participate in the training of future emergency physicians,” said Lee. “As a result, the Foundation Board voted to fund the program for three years at an anticipated approximate cost of $175,000 per year. We are happy to provide the resources needed to expose physicians in training to the challenges and rewards of emergency care in a rural setting.”
As part of the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS), University of Maryland Shore Regional Health is the principal provider of comprehensive health care services for more than 170,000 residents of Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne’s, and Talbot counties on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. UM Shore Regional Health’s team of more than 2,500 employees, medical staff, board members, and volunteers works with various community partners to fulfill the organization’s mission of Creating Healthier Communities Together.
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