12
November
2018
|
17:00 PM
America/Chicago

New Family Medicine Training Program at Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital Receives Approval

The Northwestern McGaw Family Medicine Residency at Delnor Hospital has received accreditation by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). The new program will train medical residents to develop the skills and leadership abilities required to practice family medicine in underserved communities.

Interviews will start this month to recruit the first class of residents to the three-year program, which will begin in July 2019. Residents will work under the supervision of an attending physician while providing outpatient and inpatient care for pediatric and adult patients, and low risk obstetric care. The program will eventually grow to 24 residents and seven faculty physicians.

“We believe new doctors who train in our local community will develop strong connections to the region; and many will choose to establish their practices here ensuring access to family medicine physicians for generations to come,” said Maureen Bryant, President, Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital.

Accessible and high-quality primary care services are vital to a community. In areas where there are more primary care providers per person, death rates for cancer, heart disease, and stroke are lower and people are less likely to require hospitalization, according to the American Association of Family Physicians.

“Accreditation is a rigorous process of ensuring a program meets quality standards and offers a clinical learning environment characterized by excellence in care, safety, and professionalism,” said Natalie Choi, MD, FAAFP, program director of Northwestern McGaw Family Medicine Residency at Delnor. “The relationship between a patient and their family physician is paramount and demands the best education and training possible for our medical students.”

The new program will be housed in the Delnor Family Medicine Residency building, which opened this past June. Northwestern Medicine family medicine physicians are currently seeing patients in the new building, located between the Northwestern Medicine Delnor Health & Fitness Center and Northwestern Medicine Cancer Center Delnor. The new site includes 25 exam rooms and lab draw capabilities, as well as educational and office space for the residents and attending physicians located on the second floor.

The ACGME is a private, 501(c)(3), not-for-profit organization that sets standards for US graduate medical education (residency and fellowship) programs and the institutions that sponsors them, and renders accreditation decisions based on compliance with these standards.