News

Aiken Regional Medical Centers is pleased to announce the initial accreditation from the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) of its first graduate medical education program, Family Medicine. The program will attract, train and retain physicians to the Central Savannah River Area (CSRA) and provide Aiken and surrounding areas with increased access to care.

“We are exceptionally proud to receive approval of our first GME program. Launching a graduate medical education program at Aiken Regional is a huge milestone for our hospital and the community,” said Jim O’Loughlin, Chief Executive Officer at Aiken Regional Medical Centers. “The Family Medicine Residency Program will provide Aiken and surrounding communities with increased access to quality healthcare and innovative evidenced-based medicine with clinical research, in addition to maintaining patient safety as a top priority.”

Aiken Regional’s Family Medicine Residency Program is a three-year (36-month) postgraduate program. The program will welcome its first six residents on July 1, 2022, with three years of structured, supervised training alongside highly qualified faculty and dedicated medical staff. By July 2024, Aiken Regional will have 18 Family Medicine Residents on staff and in training year-round.

“Our team is gearing up for interviews in the coming weeks and we will be participating in the National Resident Matching Program that will take place in March 2022. Our first group of residents will start the program this upcoming summer,” said Dr. Sireesha Vemuri-Reddy, MD, NIPD, FAAFP, Chief of Hospitalist Medicine and Family Medicine Program Director at Aiken Regional Medical Centers. “Residents will train alongside dedicated physicians at the hospital, as well as community-based physicians. Our program mission is to train competent, compassionate and conscientious physicians in the full scope of the family medicine practice within both the hospital and community settings.”

Aiken Regional’s graduate medical education program will help address physician shortage concerns within the CSRA and nearby areas of South Carolina. According to the American Medical Association, following residency training, 64.6% of family medicine residents practice in the same state in which they trained.

“While working toward our first group of Family Medicine Residents, we also hope to become accredited for additional residency programs in the near future,” said O’Loughlin. “Our goal is to attract physicians to our residency program and provide advanced training, and we are confident that once they are immersed in our community, they’ll want to reside and practice here long-term.”