BRICK – The Hackensack Meridian Health Ocean Medical Center is now accredited to offer residencies in family medicine and psychiatry.
Ocean Medical Center recently announced that it received initial accreditation for residency training programs in these two areas by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).
“With this ACGME accreditation, Ocean Medical Center will become a premier community teaching hospital,’’ said Dean Q. Lin, MBA, FACE, FCPP, regional president of Hackensack Meridian Health and president of Ocean Medical Center.
“We face critical physician shortages in the areas of psychiatry and family medicine,’’ Mr. Lin said. “Our ACGME-approved residency programs will help train the next generation of health care providers while increasing access to high-quality care for Ocean and Monmouth counties, the state’s two fastest growing counties.’’
Tons of medical students all across the country have shown interest in Ocean Medical Center’s programs, with 2,800 students applying for the Graduate Medical Education (GME) inaugural class of just 14 residents. Ocean Medical Center hopes to add another residency program for internal medicine by the spring of 2018.
“Ocean Medical Center’s residency programs will attract exceptional new physicians to this area and increase access to care,’’ said Thomas Brandeisky, D.O., designated institutional official and chair, Graduate Medical Education Committee (GMEC).
For the family medicine program, 8 of 1,900 applicants will be selected to participate in the three-year training program.
“Our family medicine residency program will help address the critical need for primary care providers,’’ said Kelly Ussery-Kronhaus, M.D., program director for family medicine, medical director of GME, and vice chair of family medicine at the Seton Hall-Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine.
For the psychiatry program, 6 of 975 applicants will be chosen for this four-year training program.
“Ocean Medical Center’s psychiatry program will be a community-based program,’’ said Ramon Solhkhah, M.D., program director for psychiatry as well as training director and chair of psychiatry at the Seton Hall University-Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine. “Our new psychiatry residency program will improve clinical care and ultimately encourage future health care leaders to build practices in the Jersey Shore area,’’ as stated by Dr. Solhkhah.
The application process is now nearly complete and those residents who have successfully matched with the Ocean Medical Center program will be awarded one of the 14 available positions and the inaugural class will start in July.
For more information about Ocean Medical Center’s GME program, visit OceanMedicalCenter.com/GME.
