Savannah's newest Graduate Medical Education program receives accreditation for Internal Medicine residency

St. Joseph’s/Candler and the Medical College of Georgia have officially received accreditation for the health system’s first Internal Medicine residency program.

It is the first step of an unprecedented ramp up for a program that aims to relieve the doctor shortage in the Savannah region and throughout Georgia.

With this news, St. Joseph's/Candler moves full-steam ahead to form the inaugural class of residents focused on Internal Medicine. The first class will start July 1, 2027. When at full capacity, the residency program will accommodate 103 residents across Internal Medicine, Family Medicine, Cardiovascular Disease fellowship and General Surgery.

The program received accreditation from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. Prospective residents can learn more at sjcresidency.org.

Program highlights

St. Joseph's/Candler recently received expanded Georgia state Graduate Medical Education funding to form the health system’s first physician residency program. The additional funding will allow the program to reach 103 residents by 2031. While the inaugural class for Internal Medicine is forming now, Family Medicine, General Surgery and Cardiology Fellowships will be added in coming years.

The Internal Medicine and Family Medicine tracks are specifically aimed at addressing the vital need for primary care physicians, particularly in rural and Southeast Georgia.

The Internal Medicine residents will start their training at Candler Hospital and a community health center at The Georgia Infirmary, which has a rich legacy of providing healthcare and education to the region’s most vulnerable populations. By year three, internal medicine residents will also practice at St. Joseph's Hospital.

St. Joseph's/Candler will also completely renovate the Executive Court complex next to the Candler Hospital Campus to accommodate additional training facilities, clinical space and on-call beds for residents.

Retaining physicians in Georgia

St. Joseph's/Candler President & CEO Paul P. Hinchey said, “With limited residency opportunities, coastal Georgia medical school graduates have had to seek opportunities outside the communities in which they study. This new residency program seeks both to stem the number of physicians leaving the region as well as increase local interest in pursuing medical degrees. This will give local residents more access to medical care where we live or work.”

Hinchey and David Hess, MD, Dean of the Medical College of Georgia (MCG) affirmed that physician education programs like the decades-long partnership St. Joseph's/Candler has had with Augusta University's MCG Savannah campus, at Georgia Southern University’s Armstrong Campus, will improve physician graduate retention significantly when paired with the new residency program.

“This approval marks an important milestone for GME expansion and physician training in Georgia,” said Dr. Hess. “We appreciate the vision of St. Joseph's/Candler President and CEO Paul P. Hinchey, the leadership of Dr. Natasha Savage, our Senior Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education, and Dr. Elizabeth Gray, Campus Dean at MCG Savannah, who helped drive this effort forward. This program creates a vital training pipeline for MCG Savannah and a key destination for our 3+ Peach State Scholars. Training physicians in Georgia is one of the most effective ways to keep them here. This partnership strengthens our ability to improve the physician workforce and the health of communities across our state.”

Due to the MCG partnership and the overall demand for such programs, St. Joseph's/Candler expects a competitive application process. Dr. Gray shared that four MCG students have already committed to attend the residency.

St. Joseph’s/Candler and MCG have moved quickly to stand the residency program up. Leadership is already in place and curriculum for the Internal Medicine program has been developed.

• John Cinicola, MD, Program Director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program
• Nina Paletta Schwartz, MD, FACP, Associate Program Director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program

 

About Graduate Medical Education at St. Joseph's/Candler

Residency is the next step in St. Joseph's/Candler’s clinical training partnership with Augusta University’s MCG that dates back to 2007 when the health system first hosted third- and fourth-year medical students for clinical rotations. St. Joseph's/Candler continued this partnership as MCG’s clinical rotations later shifted to a two-year regional campus before ultimately becoming a four-year program of study in 2024 based at Georgia Southern University’s Armstrong Campus in Savannah. Throughout the entire evolution of the partnership, St. Joseph's/Candler physicians have served as volunteer faculty.

The St. Joseph's/Candler Residency program will train residents within a health system that spans two hospital campuses, a growing network of outpatient sites across Southeast Georgia, and a patient population that is as diverse as the region itself. Residents will have access to cutting-edge technology, high-acuity clinical experiences, and daily mentorship from some of the most experienced attending physicians in the state who have spent their careers here and are genuinely invested in shaping future physicians.

About St. Joseph’s/Candler

St. Joseph’s/Candler is a 714-bed, Magnet-designated health system for nursing excellence, with a focus on the latest technologies and research. It is anchored by St. Joseph’s Hospital, Candler Hospital plus the new Pooler and Bluffton campuses. Its comprehensive network includes centers of excellence for oncology, cardiovascular, neurosciences, women’s and children’s services, orthopedics, pulmonary medicine and a variety of other disease specialties. SJ/C's Nancy N. and J.C. Lewis Cancer & Research Pavilion has been selected to be part of the National Cancer Institute’s Community Oncology Research Program. St. Joseph’s/Candler is a not-for-profit health system serving 33 counties in southeast Georgia and three in the South Carolina Low Country and is the largest and only faith-based institution in the region. For more information, visit www.sjchs.org.