South Nassau expands medical residency program

South Nassau Communities Hospital recently received approval for a new Internal Medicine Residency Program from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education that will allow for the training of 30 internal medicine physicians.

The new residency program is another step in South Nassau’s transformation to a regional medical and teaching center for the next generation of physicians and caregivers. The program was made possible by South Nassau’s affiliation with the Mount Sinai Health System, which provided the 30 graduate medical education slots for use at South Nassau.

The program is in addition to the hospital’s already robust medical education systems where to date South Nassau’s residency program has graduated more than 300 residents from its Family Medicine Residency Program.

The internal medicine program is listed with the National Resident Matching Program and will begin interviewing fourth-year medical school seniors for enrollment. The program will accept ten first-year residents who will begin their residency in July 2019.

“Our residency program has the dual function of training the next generation of physicians, while supporting the hospital’s mission of providing standard-setting health care,” said Richard J. Murphy, president and chief executive officer of South Nassau. “When residents are onboard and teaching is part of the everyday culture, everyone has to be on their game, so it benefits staff and our patients. It raises the bar across the board.

“Mount Sinai is excited to support a new internal medicine residency program at South Nassau,” said Dr. Michael Leitman, dean for graduate medical education, designated institutional official and professor of surgery and medical education at Mount Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine. “This will be the first medical school sponsored program of its kind on the South Shore of Long Island. Residents will have exceptional educational, clinical and research opportunities and it is our hope that graduates of this program will remain in local practices to care for our community.”

South Nassau and the Mount Sinai Health System had agreed earlier this year to affiliate and are awaiting final regulatory approval, expected this fall. Specialized training in Internal Medicine GME residency programs takes place over a three-year period. Residency is the final phase of a long educational process, required for a physician to practice medicine, and is most influential in determining where a physician eventually practices.

“South Nassau has hired a senior experienced educator, Dr. Steven Weiss, as the new Program Director, and we are certain this residency will be a great success for patients and physicians,” said Dr. Aaron Glatt, chairman of medicine at South Nassau, and clinical professor at the Icahn School of Medicine.

During the three-year residency, residents will learn how to prevent, diagnose and treat diseases that affect adults and, upon completion, they will have the training and skill required to diagnose and prescribe treatment plans for patients with severe chronic illnesses. General internists may practice in a variety of settings, including hospitals, multi-specialty physician practices, rehabilitation centers and long-term care facilities. While their training prepares them to practice high quality primary care and establish long and rewarding physician-patient relationships, internal medicine physicians are not general practitioners, or family practitioners, whose training is not solely concentrated on adults and may encompass pediatrics, obstetrics, and surgery.

“A robust medical residency training program is core to the South Nassau mission of providing high-quality, state-of-the-art healthcare services to the patients and communities we serve,” added Dr. Samuel Sandowski vice president of medical education and designated institutional official for South Nassau. “Year in and year out, graduates of our residency program establish thriving private practices or are employed by top-notch hospitals or medical practices that are recognized for their quality and excellence in the delivery of patient-centered healthcare.”

In addition to its training of residents, South Nassau trains several hundred medical students each year. It offers undergraduate clinical experiences for medical students from Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine, SUNY at Stony Brook, SUNY at Brooklyn, New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine, and Ross University Medical School. It also serves as a training site for physician assistant students from Hofstra University, Pace University and Touro College. It also has a new residency for pharmacists.

-Compiled by Peter Belfiore