RANCHO MIRAGE – Eisenhower Health, the Coachella Valley’s first accredited teaching hospital, has both robust internal medicine and family residency programs and is now on the threshold of introducing an Emergency Medicine Residency Program.
Eisenhower Health on Wednesday announced it has received accreditation from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) for its Emergency Medicine Residency Program. The hospital will welcome its first Emergency Medicine residents in July 2019.
ACGME is a private, non-profit organization that evaluates and accredits graduate medical education (GME) programs.
Eisenhower’s new emergency medicine residency program will initially have six positions available the first year, with plans to expand the program to 27 over time. The accreditation will bring the total number of residency positions at the hospital, among its accredited GME programs, to 127.
In preparation for the new residency program, the hospital has recruited several physicians from Stanford University, Northwestern University and University of California, Irvine to add to its faculty.
Additionally, the hospital is currently developing a simulation lab and creating a curriculum and training program that will rival any in the country for training physicians board certified in Emergency Medicine and other specialties.
“The residency program represents a bright future on a number of levels: recruiting future physicians, opportunities for research, improving quality and consistency of care, innovation, and making our emergency department a place to not only care for our community, but also to educate and train physicians for the future,” Dr. Euthym Kontaxis, medical director for Eisenhower’s Tennity Emergency Department, said in a prepared statement. “I calculate the number of people that will be cared for by our residents over the next 10 years — both as learners and subsequently as attending physicians — at 250,000 patients in that time frame, in addition to our emergency department’s 85,000 to 100,000 patients a year…essentially one and a half million lives impacted by our efforts in this endeavor.”
Kontaxis added, “This opportunity allows our emergency department staff to re-dedicate themselves to quality patient care, using skill, knowledge, effort, compassion, and now teaching and learning — exemplifying the great privilege they have to care for another person.”
Earlier this year, Eisenhower Health filled 20 internal medicine spots and 12 family residency spots on Match Day. A preponderance of Eisenhower’s residents has close ties to California. The remainder comes from throughout the country.
The new physician residents arrived in June 18 for a two-week orientation and will began work after that in July.
Eisenhower became an accredited Teaching Hospital in 2011 and welcomed its first residents in Internal Medicine and Family Medicine in 2013.
In December, for the second consecutive year, Eisenhower Health was named a Top Teaching Hospital by The Leapfrog Group.
The Leapfrog Top Hospital award is widely acknowledged as one of the most competitive honors American hospitals can receive. The Top Hospital designation is awarded by The Leapfrog Group, an independent hospital watchdog organization.
The 2018 Main Residency Match was the largest in the history of the National Resident Matching Program® (NRMP®). A record-high 37,103 applicants submitted program choices for 33,167 positions, the most ever offered in the Match. The number of available first-year positions rose to 30,232, an increase of 1,383 over 2017.
