LOGAN, W.Va. — Marshall University’s School of Medicine coming together with Logan Regional Medical Center to welcome the nation’s first separately-accredited rural surgery residency program.
The Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine and Marshall Community Health Consortium partnered with the medical center staff in Logan Tuesday to cut the ribbon on the developing program there, which took in its first residents in July.
Senator Rupie Phillips (R-Logan) was in attendance at Tuesday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony, and he said it’s creating new opportunities for the entire region.
“It opens up a lot of doors for all areas of West Virginia, and eastern Kentucky and western Virginia, I think this is just great,” Phillips said. “And having the access to some surgeons and being able to get them to say, ‘hey, I trained in rural areas, I’m going to stay in rural areas.”
The residents will be trained through a model that incorporates specific benchmarks unique to surgeons practicing in a rural setting.
Marshall’s School of Medicine Vice Dean of Graduate Medical Education Dr. Paulette Wehner told MetroNews the efforts to develop the general surgery residency program in a rural area was achieved with the help of a $750,000 grant from the U.S Department of Health and Human Services.
“We are just so proud of this, and it will train highly-qualified general surgeons who hopefully want to pursue their career and serve the citizens of West Virginia in rural areas,” said Wehner.
Wehner said Marshall’s School of Medicine, the sponsors of the effort, will work with Logan Medical Center to not only train the surgeons, but develop a curriculum for the program, recruit more faculty, address clinical and learning needs in the rural areas, and ensure accreditation is maintained.
So far the school has recruited three residents in to the program. The residents are expected to spend at least 50% of the five-year training residency in a rural hospital.
According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, a shortage of a little over 23,000 to 31,000 general surgeons is expected by 2025.
Wehner said Logan Medical Center was chosen for the program as it meets the need for training to be held in a rural community, as well as for the medical center’s credibility.
“There is a dire shortage of general surgeons, there is an even higher shortage of general surgeons in rural areas, and Logan has extremely qualified faculty,” she said.
She said residents will be trained under Dr. Jodie Cisco-Goff and Dr. James Paugh at Logan Medical Center.
Dr. Allen Young, a staff member at Logan Regional who was also at Tuesday’s ribbon-cutting said the accomplishment of bringing the residency program there only accentuates what the medical center was already capable of.
“You know, I grew up in Southern West Virginia, I went to medical school in Southern West Virginia, and now I work here in Logan , and I don’t think people realize the high-quality of care we have here at Logan Regional,” Young said.
Wehner said the residents will become a part of the environment and fabric of the medical center, and in turn, they will become a part of the Logan community they are serving.
“They will also be very beneficial to the community, not only in learning their craft of surgery, but simply contributing to the community,” Wehner said.