Bayhealth ready to offer graduate residency programs
Bayhealth is taking strides to address a shortage of doctors in the area by instituting a graduate medical education program.
Bayhealth comprises hospitals in Milford and Dover, a freestanding emergency department in Smyrna, and numerous satellite facilities and employed physician practices. Bayhealth has 4,000 employees and a medical staff of more than 400.
During a June 15 presentation to Sussex County Council, Dr. Bradley Mitchell, general surgery program director, said students in the program will have doctor of medicine degrees and can take care of patients under faculty supervision.
The three residency programs include:
Family medicine: A three-year program opening this July for eight residents each year providing inpatient, outpatient and urgent care, geriatrics, pediatrics and obstetrics. The program will partner with homeless shelters, free clinics and nursing homes for veterans.
Internal medicine: A three-year program opening this July for 13 residents per year. Residents become hospitalists, primary care providers or specialists. Residents will be part of the care team for hospitalized adult patients at Bayhealth's Sussex and Kent campuses. In conjunction with the program, residents will help staff the new Bayhealth Internal Medicine outpatient office opening in Milford in June. Mitchell said there are immediate openings for new patients.
General surgery: A five-year program starting in July 2022 for three residents per year with a total of 15 over a five-year period.
The overall program will start with 21 residents in 2021-22 and grow to include 109 residents by 2026-27.
In 2019, Bayhealth started an internal medicine residency program with 11 third-year medical students and plans to recruit 13 new resident physicians each year, plus expansion plans to add fourth-year students.
“This will address a need for more doctors in this part of the state. There are not enough here for us as we all age,” said Bayhealth Foundation President Lindsay Rhodenbaugh. He told council in addition to the graduate education program, Bayhealth will open 24 new private patient rooms this fall at its Milford hospital and has plans for a $30 million to $35 million hybrid emergency room facility at the intersection of Route 9 and Hudson Road between Lewes and Georgetown.
He said the Bayhealth Sussex Campus has expanded to include the Nemours Building, which contains Nemours duPont Pediatrics and Nemours SeniorCare on the first floor, and Bayhealth doctors and specialists on the second and third floors.
Sussex and Kent counties have been classified as health professional shortage areas, Mitchell said.
