St. Francis Medical Center

Welcomes Inaugural Class of Internal Medicine Residents

THE INAUGURAL CLASS OF ST. FRANCIS MEDICAL

Center’s accredited and community-based Internal Medicine Residency Program officially began on June 19th, marking a historic moment for the hospital and Northeast Louisiana.

“Welcoming these 15 residents to St. Francis Medical Center is another major milestone for the hospital and community as we continue to grow as an academic institution,” said Thomas Gullatt, MD, President of St. Francis Health. “This next generation of physician leaders will be on the forefront of new technologies and procedures, which benefits the communities we serve by continually enhancing the quality of care we provide.”

The St. Francis Medical Center Internal Medicine Residency Program was accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) in March 2021. Shortly after the program was accredited, the application process for the first cohort of residents began and nearly 2,000 applications were submitted. From there, the process of ranking candidates for the National Residency Matching Program (NRMP) took place and results were given in March. By the end of June, 15 residents were preparing to embark on the next steps in their careers.

“We are very excited to welcome such a diverse group of internal medicine residents to St. Francis,” said Navin Ramlal, MD, Internal Medicine Residency Program Director at St. Francis Medical Center. “We look forward to not only teaching but to fostering an ongoing exchange of knowledge with our residents and are confident they will help our program continue to evolve as they grow into the future leaders of healthcare. We hope many of these residents will make this their home after graduation.”

Residents will spend much of their time over the next three years working on the medical floors with internists, hospitalists, intensivists and other sub-specialists. Residents will do rotations in the major internal medicine sub-specialties both in the hospital and clinics. They will also spend much of their time at the St. Francis Primary Care Clinic-Jackson Street location to gain primary care experience in an outpatient setting.

The Internal Medicine Residency Program is the first in an ongoing strategic plan of several graduate medical education programs at St. Francis Medical Center.

As part of this academic initiative, St. Francis redesigned part of one hospital floor to accommodate the new 5,500-squarefoot Academic Affairs suite. The suite offers a kitchen, lounge and lactation room with 24-hour access to food and a place for residents to find a reprieve from their hectic days. Meetings and reviews are held in the Graduate Medical Education conference room, complimented by a workroom available for individual study. The suite also features two locker rooms and four sleep rooms for the comfort and privacy of the residents.

Once students successfully finish their residency, they will become the next physician leaders in healthcare. Nearly 70 percent of doctors end up practicing medicine near the location of their residency programs, meaning they will also increase positive health outcomes and quality of life directly in the Northeast Louisiana community.