BUIES CREEK — The Jerry M. Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine and Southeastern Health in Lumberton have received approval to create Campbell University’s first emergency medicine residency program.
The program received full accreditation status from the American Osteopathic Association and will be transitioning to accreditation by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education as the two accrediting bodies unify over the next five years. The program will supply “caring and expert emergency department physicians the state so desperately needs,” according to Dr. Robert Hasty, associate dean of postgraduate affairs at Campbell.
“We are thrilled for this approval,” Hasty said, “and I know it is going to make a big difference for the communities who will benefit by having these well-trained physicians.”
Campbell’s medical school has committed to developing residency programs around the state for its graduates, especially in hospitals positioned to meet the needs of rural and underserved communities. According to the National Rural Health Association, 75 percent of residency graduates from rural programs will practice in rural locations.
“Southeastern will be a fantastic site for these physicians to train,” said Dr. Elizabeth Gignac, founding program director for the Southeastern Health Emergency Medicine residency program. “By joining the five other established emergency medicine residency programs in the state, our program will help meet the current and future emergency medicine needs in North Carolina.”
Dr. John Kauffman, dean of Campbell’s medical school, said, “This residency program is one of many new programs the medical school is developing to advance the mission of educating and preparing physicians to care for the rural and underserved populations in North Carolina, the Southeastern United States and the nation.”
By Sarah H. Bowman, JD
Med school’s first emergency medicine residency program earns approval