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Three residency programs end

Repurcussions mounting from hospital closures

Photo provided Empty white coats are placed on seats in the former Ohio Valley Medical Center’s auditorium as a symbolic gesture to mark the closing of three medical residency programs.

WHEELING — Three post-graduate residency programs have ended as a result of Ohio Valley Medical Center’s closure.

A total of 34 medical residents are affected by this decision. One-third of the residents have obtained new placements within the tri-state region to complete training in their specialties, while the remaining residents have secured residencies in other states.

OVMC shut down on Sept. 4. The residency programs closed officially on Sept. 20.

The residency programs were internal medicine, emergency medicine and a combined program of internal medicine and emergency medicine. The programs were directed by Dr. Rick Greco and Dr. Joseph Dougherty.

At the time of the closure, the internal medicine residency program had 15 residents, the emergency medicine residency program had 18 residents and the combined program had one resident, Dougherty said.

OVMC had been involved in post-graduate training of residents since the early 1960s, he said. The residency programs were accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and the American Osteopathic Association.

“Residents have been active in the community for the past 18 years, doing sports physicals for local high schools, Special Olympics and more. They will miss the community …,” Dougherty said, adding, “The programs thank the many programs locally, state and nationally that assisted in placing the residents in new programs.”

On their final day at OVMC, the residents signed in for the last day — as required by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ rules — then had breakfast, confirmed that paperwork was completed and posed for a final group photograph.

The situation at OVMC marks the second recent closure of a hospital causing residents to be displaced. When Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia closed in September, “550 residents were displaced there,” he said.

During its era of post-graduate medical education, “Ohio Valley Medical Center was a center of health professional education, training physicians in pathology, general surgery, oral surgery, obstetrics, internal medicine, radiology, plastics, family medicine, and emergency medicine. The institution trained over 900 physicians,”Dougherty said.

The internal medicine, emergency medicine and combined programs were the last three residencies to be offered at OVMC.

“The programs had won awards in research and community service,” Dougherty said. “The residents said they will never forget their training that was made possible by the people they served in the Ohio Valley.”

Meanwhile, Wheeling Hospital operates a large family medicine residency program. In addition, Trinity Health System in Steubenville plans to establish two new residency programs in internal medicine and emergency medicine.

Two of the displaced OVMC emergency medicine residents — Lee Gillespie and Barklay Walter — have been placed with Trinity Health System in Steubenville. Thomas Kettlewell got a placement in internal medicine at East Liverpool City Hospital.

Two other residents — Craig Jones and Jarryd Reed — have been placed with West Virginia University School of Medicine’s emergency medicine department in Morgantown.

Receiving new placements at Charleston Area Medical Center are Shannon Altazan, Katelynn Bailey, Glen Hayes and Stephanie Thomas.

Cody Grace, Jillian Hugart, Collin Stinogel and Ali Rivzi have been placed with Allegheny Health Network in Pittsburgh. Tyler Sieron has relocated to Akron for emergency medicine training.

Other residents, with their new placements listed, are as follows: Andrew Glickman, Braden Regional Hospital; Saumil Patel, New York Presbyterian, Queens, New York; Megan Hoffer, George Washington University, Washington, D.C.; James Newton, Oak Hill Hospital, Brookville, Florida; Brittany Speed, BIVENT in North Carolina; Anousheh Afjei, Loma Linda University Health in California; Salvaralaxmi Monaganti, Marshfield, Wisconsin; Dixita Patel and Chintan Shah, Franciscan Health, Olympia Fields, Illinois; Joseph Ciszewski, Elizabeth Nathan, Charles Doerner and Syed Imam, Northside Hospital, Florida; Kunal Desai, Reading Hospital; Siri Gadde, University of Buffalo, New York; Raghu Gottipatti, Western Reserve, Wisconsin; Kasey Radicic, LECOM Lake Erie; Loutfi Sakkal, Nazareth Hospital, New York; and Clay Winkler, Palmetto, South Carolina.

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