News Seton Adds Emergency Medicine Residency Program

Emergency Service Partners gives $2 million to first new residency under historic academic affiliation agreement

AUSTIN, Texas - (April 5, 2011) - The first new residency program to be created as a result of the historic agreement between the Seton Family of Hospitals, the University of Texas System and UT Southwestern Medical School will be offered in 2012.

Taking advantage of a $2 million donation from Emergency Service Partners (ESP) Seton is creating an emergency medicine residency program, the first of its kind in Central Texas.

The residency, part of a broader effort to enhance the quality and availability of medical care in Central Texas through medical research and education, will provide clinical training for eight additional physicians each year, pending approval by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).

ESP physicians provide emergency care to patients at all of Seton's eight adult acute care hospitals.

"We are excited to be a part of this new residency program," said Dr. Sam Roberts, president of ESP and medical director for the Seton Medical Center Austin Emergency Department. "Seton has made a huge commitment to expanding medical education in Central Texas. With this gift, we wanted to step up as a physician group and put our money where our mouth is."

The new emergency medicine residency program will be a three-year program and will rotate residents among multiple Seton hospitals. Third-year residents may have the opportunity to complete an emergency medicine rotation in a rural Seton facility. "Very few residency programs offer a rural emergency medicine component," Dr. Roberts said. "But, in practice, rural hospitals are where you really need the very best emergency medicine doctors."

"Emergency medicine is a critical part of a region's health care service, said Charles J. Barnett, FACHE, president/CEO of the Seton Family of Hospitals. "Seton has two facilities - University Medical Center Brackenridge and Dell Children's Medical Center of Central Texas - which are Level 1 Trauma Centers," "These facilities, along with other Seton hospitals, will offer residents the best possible environment to learn emergency medicine. And, in turn, these residents will assist Seton in expanding access to emergency care."

By training more residents in the region, Seton hopes to increase the number of physicians who set up permanent practices in Central Texas. Studies consistently show that physicians usually practice in the area where they do their residency. Residents also help expand access to health care among the underserved by treating large numbers of indigent patients under the supervision of an attending physician.

"Emergency medicine is a big draw for medical students," said Dr. Susan Cox, associate dean for Medical Education at UT Southwestern Medical School. "Not only will this generous gift help us grow our graduate medical education program, but it will also help address Austin's physician shortage by attracting more physicians to the region."

Todd Berger, MD, FACEP, will lead the emergency medicine residency program. He joins Seton after more than a decade of service at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Ga., a Level 1 Trauma Center where he served as associate program director for the hospital's residency program with Emory University.

Seton already offers medical residency programs in dermatology, family medicine, internal medicine, neurology, obstetrics/gynecology, pediatrics, psychiatry, child and adolescent psychiatry, surgery and transitional year programs, employing about 200 practicing physician residents. UT Southwestern began overseeing Seton academic programs in 2010.

What is a "residency program"?
A residency is a stage of graduate medical training. After completing four years of medical school and earning a medical degree, newly trained physicians practice medicine as residents under the supervision of fully licensed physicians, usually in a hospital or clinic. The first year of residency is sometimes referred to as an internship. Texas law requires that physicians complete a minimum of one year of graduate medical training in the United States or Canada in an ACGME- or American Osteopathic Association-accredited program or a board-approved fellowship.