Upper Peninsula Health Education Corporation

Residency program earns five year accreditation, provides five new UP physicians

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

MARQUETTE – Counting this Friday’s group, more half of all Marquette Family Medicine Residency Program graduates will have gone on to practice in the Upper Peninsula. 

These 82 physician-graduates have made up one third of the UP's family physicians, one third of UP emergency physicians and two thirds of UP hospitalists, a relatively new discipline focusing on the care of hospitalized patients.

“We are pleased to announce that all five June 2008 graduates have committed to serving UP communities,” said Bill Short, MD, director of the Marquette Family Medicine Residency Program.

This year’s graduates and their practice locations are: Maciej Czechowski, MD, Doctors Park, Escanaba; Joel Dank, MD, Negaunee Medical Associates; Jennifer Dehlin, MD, Lakewood Medical Associates, Harvey; Chris Dums, MD, Schoolcraft Memorial Hospital, Manistique; and Emily Godec, MD, Lakewood Medical Associates, Harvey.

“With the 2008 class, we will have graduated 140 family physicians since the program's inception in 1979 and more than half have chosen to stay," said Short.  “We are very pleased that these five outstanding individuals will remain in the Upper Peninsula,” he added.

Many of the program’s graduates throughout the region are health care and community leaders, including many physicians within Marquette General Health System.  In addition, many provide volunteer services at their community's schools, service organizations and places of worship. And many continue to support the program’s educational mission by teaching residents and medical students.

MGHS has a long history as a teaching hospital. The residency program followed closely on the heels of the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine Rural Physician Program, which started in 1974. These two programs are managed by the Upper Peninsula Health Education Corporation, a collaboration between MGHS and MSU-CHM.

The residency program is dually accredited by both the American Osteopathic Association and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.

The ACGME is a private, non-profit council that evaluates and accredits medical residency programs in the United States. Programs must be ACGME-accredited in order to receive federal graduate medical education funds and residents must graduate from accredited programs to take board certification exams. In addition, many states require completion of an ACGME-accredited residency for licensure.

ACGME field staff conduct program site visits once every two to five years, depending on the strength of the program. Programs are evaluated in the areas of resident performance, faculty development, graduate performance, including certification examination performance and program quality. 

As a testament to the level of training and strict standards incorporated in the Marquette Family Medicine Residency, the program received a full five year accreditation upon completion of the 2007 site review. 

Although this is the best a program can do in the United States, it is no novelty for the MGHS residency, which has received the full five year accreditation with every site review since the program began.

“The five year accreditation recognizes the quality of residents, graduates and residency staff,” said David Luoma, MD, UPHEC CEO and Community Assistant Dean for MSU-CHM’s Rural Physician Program. “The support of the board, administration and staff at MGH and the great medical staff that teaches our residents makes this accreditation possible,” Luoma added.

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