First Class of Internal Medicine Residents Move Along

MORENO VALLEY >> Riverside Community Hospital will welcome 25 residents for the Riverside Community Hospital (RCH)/UC Riverside School of Medicine Internal Medicine Residency (IMR) Program. The residents’ names were announced during the annual Match Day event, when graduating medical students learn where they will be spending the next several years as resident physicians. The 25 PGY-1 (post-graduate year 1) slots available for Riverside Community Hospital’s IMR Program were all successfully matched and filled through this process. The program is the first residency at RCH. Three hundred interviews were conducted with applicants from around the country. This program represents the culmination of years of hard work to develop and implement the hospital’s graduate medical education program, and is a significant milestone and addition to the hospital’s ongoing growth and development. “This class of residents has been selected because of their educational achievements and enthusiasm for making a difference in our community,” said Robby Gulati, M.D., Program Director of the new Internal Medicine residency program. He added, “The presence of faculty and residents increases primary care capacity in the Inland Empire.” RCH and the UC Riverside School of Medicine are working to develop residency training programs in an effort to reduce the serious physician shortage. The Inland Empire area has seen patient ratios as low as 120 doctors per 100,000 patients as compared to California statewide where the ratio is 194 per 100,000 patients. The physician shortage in Riverside is expected to worsen as physicians retire faster than new physicians can replace them. "RCH is proud to welcome our new residents to our Internal Medicine Graduate Medical Education Program. We are committed to training the next generation of physicians. The new residency program is one piece of our strategy to address the physician shortage,” said Patrick Brilliant, President and CEO of RCH. "This is an important milestone for RCH and I am proud of our team who has devoted significant time to building the program,” said Kenneth Dozier, M.D. and Chief Medical Officer of RCH. “We hope to improve access to Primary Care for individuals in our community, reducing their need to use emergency rooms for non-emergency conditions.” Dr. Gulati and his team are looking forward to welcoming the first class of residents. Graduate Medical Education at RCH, in partnership with the UC Riverside School of Medicine, anticipates starting residencies in OB/Gyn, emergency medicine, family medicine, and general surgery within the next 24 months.