HCA Healthcare expands graduate medical education to record class of residents, fellows
HCA Healthcare announced that it has offered 1,982 positions for its July 2021 graduate medical education programs—its largest incoming class to date and the largest nationally among U.S. teaching hospitals.
HCA Healthcare has become a significant provider of clinical and medical education and is the largest sponsor of graduate medical education programs in the United States, with 304 Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) accredited programs, more than 5,100 residents and fellows, and 61 teaching hospitals across 16 states.
“We are continuing to address two critical shortages in the United States—nurses and physicians—by growing our comprehensive graduate medical education programs and clinical education programs,” said Sam Hazen, chief executive officer of HCA Healthcare.
According to a study by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the United States could see a shortage of up to 139,000 physicians by 2033. HCA Healthcare is addressing this significant workforce issue by adding more than 3,500 new residency positions since 2014, including more than 500 this year alone, in a broad range of specialties.
Most of HCA Healthcare’s graduate medical education programs are located in the Southeast, across the Sunbelt and in the Inner Mountain West where physician shortages are worse than the national averages and where the population has continued to grow at a rapid rate. This is important to physician workforce development in these regions because about half of all physicians end up practicing in markets where they complete their training, and about two-thirds stay in the same state.
In addition to its graduate medical education programs, HCA Healthcare has also invested significantly in clinical education, including:
· Nursing schools: HCA Healthcare owns Galen College of Nursing, one of the largest educators of nurses in the United States, with six campuses and nearly 8,000 students enrolled in the January 2021 term. HCA Healthcare, which employs more than 93,000 nurses, has two additional nursing schools, Research College of Nursing and Mercy School of Nursing.
· HCA Healthcare Centers for Clinical Advancement: HCA Healthcare has seven Centers for Clinical Advancement across the country that provide nurses and clinicians with state-of-the-art simulation and learning centers to expand their clinical knowledge in a safe and supportive environment.
· Clinical Certifications: HCA Healthcare also supports colleagues who want to obtain specialty clinical certifications by paying upfront testing costs, providing test preparation materials and reimbursing costs after successful completion of a certification exam. Colleagues also receive bonuses for achieving nationally recognized certifications beyond their current position.
Also aimed at addressing the national physician shortage, HCA Healthcare recently announced a collaboration with Belmont University on the intent to start a new College of Medicine in Nashville. HCA Healthcare’s TriStar Health will provide third year medical students core clinical clerkships and fourth-year medical students clinical elective rotations.
