Office of Medical Education
PCOM/Houston Healthcare Family Medicine Residency 2015-16 Annual Program Evaluation
The 2015-16 academic at Houston Healthcare Family Medicine Residency Program continued to follow the evolutionary process that defines osteopathic graduate medical education (OGME). The year started with our fourth class of OGME-1 residents beginning training. We had six DOs start to maintain our resident complement which is 6-6-7. Our new first year class comprised graduates from both campuses of Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, LMU- DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine, William Carey College of Osteopathic Medicine, and Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine.
The residency year started off well and the spectrum of care and exposure evolved as office pediatric volume and continuity of care continued to build. Volunteer faculty continued to note difficulty with supervising residents and medical students (Ga-PCOM), which lead to struggles with finding volunteer faculty to host residents on their pediatric and obstetrical rotations. The resident GYN clinic continued to function through December, but was discontinued due to lack of time commitment from volunteer GYN faculty. The Houston County Health Department was approached to host residents for their third year GYN experience, but due to limited physician staffing and oversight this experience was tabled. Dr. Cheryl Young a local GYN provider did volunteer to host some of our third year residents towards the latter half of the year.
As the single graduate medical education (GME) accreditation system merger became final we have continued to bring our standards into alignment with those of the American Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), while continuing to follow AOA standards. The application for ACGME approval was submitted and we had our site visit from the ACGME reviewer in February. The site visitors report was submitted and the review committee for Family Medicine determined that our program would remain in Pre-Accredited status until documented citations were addressed. Most of the citations were works in progress and we do anticipate the new application will be submitted by August 2, 2016.
Other changes to the program included that of program directors. Dr. Gretta Gross resigned and Dr. La Toya Jackson assumed the role of Interim Program Director. Our current faculty continued to expand their involvement in the program and also nationally. Dr. Jackson completed the Faculty Development Fellowship at UNC- Chapel Hill in June 2016, she also presented at a national conference (STFM).Dr. Juan Velazquez joined the new physician leadership committee within the ACOFP, became Associate Chair of the Family Medicine Department and continues to serve on other hospital committees. Dr. Jovan Adams completed the Medical Association of Georgia physician leadership academy and has assumed the role of chair of the ethics committee at Houston Medical Center. Dr. Jason Hatcher became a member of the ACOFP Social Media Committee and is chair of the clinic competency committee.
As opposed to the previous year the In-Service exam scores improved and one of our second year residents Tameka Byrd was accepted as a fellow in the NYIT via NYCOM Training in policy studies (TIPS) and graduated in June 2016. Challenges this year included residents being placed on remediation/individual education programs for poor performance and lapses in professionalism and medical knowledge. We also had two residents requiring academic probation as they did not respond and modify performance appropriately after being engaged in the remediation process. Additionally we had one resident who was not extended a second year contract and one resident departed the program abruptly at the end of her first year with limited explanation.
June was a time to celebrate our third annual graduation ceremony. This class represented the second group to complete all three years of training at Houston Healthcare. We had Lt Commander Toya Kelley, MD of the Public Health Service deliver the key note address for our graduates who included Usman Ahmad, DO, Cherie Hawkins, DO, Julian Hoang, Alexander Ibezi-Enendu DO, Ramin Sadeghi, DO Lauri Urquhart, DO and Raj Vishnagara, DO. Dr. Ahmad joined Indiana University as a hospitalist in Lafayette, IN; Dr. Hawkins joined an outpatient practice at OSF Peoria in IL , Dr. Hoang will be joining an outpatient practice in Virginia; Dr. Ibezi-Enendu plans to join practice in a local Warner Robins ER or private practice . Dr. Sadeghi will join outpatient practice at Warner Robins Airforce Base as a captain; Dr. Urquhart joined practice as an ER provider at Redmond Regional in Rome, Ga. and Dr. Visnagara will join Navicent Health in Macon as a hospitalist. At the ceremony, the graduates honored Dr. Smolenskyas inpatient preceptor of the year and, Dr. Stewart for his teaching in the outpatient setting. This year’s outstanding resident award for demonstrating the characteristics that make an excellent family physician was presented to Dr. Laurie Urquhart.
In June we also completed our second Annual Program Evaluation survey. In general, the responses were positive and showed improvement over last year. As we continue to discuss the results one area of concern was lack of a medical library which has been discussed in the past and we continue to seek this resource from GA-PCOM.
With the calendar turning to July, the new first year resident class has started orientation and the program looks to restart the training cycle for the upcoming year. We have graduates from PCOM, LMU, WMC, Arizona and NYCOM joining the program. We will look forward to the response from the ACGME Family Medicine Review Committee after responding to our previous citations and anticipate being granted Initial Accreditation. We will continue to provide high quality health care to the residents of Houston County and educational experience to our trainees.
Respectfully submitted,
La Toya D. Jackson, MS, DO
Director of Medical Education
Program Director
Houston Healthcare
1601 Watson Boulevard
Warner Robins GA 31093