September 12, 2016

2015-2016 Annual Report to the GAFP

The Medical Center Navicent Health/Mercer University School of Medicine Family Medicine Residency Program has had a productive year.

With the retirement of our long time chair Dr. Girton in February of last year, we are happy to welcome Dr. Harry Strothers as our new chair. We will be initiating an accelerated track with one Mercer student from the Macon campus in the 2016-17 year. The Family Health Center participated in the GAFP sponsored Patient Centered Medical Home University and submit the application and was awarded Level 3 NCQI accreditation and we are preparing our application for recertification with hopes of maintain our Level 3 accreditation. The 2015-16academic year included the completion of the sixthyear of our participation in the University of Arizona’s Integrative Medicine in Residency program. As one of the original programs in the country offering this program, we are proud to have now graduated 49 residents, one faculty, and four Integrative Geriatric Fellowsfrom this nationally recognized award-winning program. This year also marked the 40th year of graduates from our residency program.

All of the faculty have been active in scholarly activity with presentations at grand rounds as well as international, national and regional meetings. The residents have also been actively involved in quality improvement projects and research projects. The transition of care visit program continues to flourish. It was developed and implemented by several residents to assist in reducing our readmission rate to the hospital and enhancing our transition of care visit.

Implementation of thefull library of the Challenger Program for Residencies, made possible by a grant from the GAFP Foundation and generous faculty contributions, continues to be a great success. Residents utilize this invaluable tool for Board review as well as general resourcing.We have had a pass rate of 100% for the last three years for the ABFM exam with our recent graduates. We matched 8 of 8 positions in the 2016 PGY 1 class with strong candidates;most having strong ties to Georgia. Of our seven 2016 residency graduates, 1 stayed on as a junior faculty, 1 joined Navicent in Macon as an Urgent Care physician, 3 arepracticing in Georgia,and 2 are in practice in other states. Overall, more than 80% of our graduates are practicing in Georgia, with 70% of those serving in medically underserved areas.

Issues facing our training program include but are not limited to the following:

  • Increasing the patient population of children under the age of 10 years
  • The need for more talented, committed, and passionate Residency faculty
  • Negotiating salaries for faculty that are competitive for the market

Respectfully submitted,

Y. Monique Davis-Smith, MD, FAAFP

Program Director

MCCG/MUSM Family Medicine Residency

Macon, GA