PENSACOLA, Fla. – Sacred Heart Health System is partnering with Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine to start a three-year residency program to train physicians in osteopathic internal medicine. The targeted start date for the program is July 2009, when the first internal medicine residents will begin their training at Sacred Heart’s Pensacola hospital.

“We are pleased to offer the only internal medicine residency program in Northwest Florida,” says Peter Heckathorn, executive vice president of Sacred Heart Health System. “Increasing the number of internal medicine physicians is greatly needed to address the current statewide shortage of primary care physicians. This new program also will result in significant economic benefits for Northwest Florida.”

A recent study conducted by the University of Central Florida estimates that each new internal medicine physician who chooses to remain in Northwest Florida will contribute almost $1 million annually to the local economy as a healthcare provider, employer and catalyst for new jobs.  

“As a state, we are experiencing both a shortage of internists who choose to become primary care physicians, as well as a greater need for internists to treat our aging population,” says Dr. Paul Baroco, chief medical officer for Sacred Heart Health System. “Having more primary care physicians available will, in effect, lower the overall cost of healthcare. With more patients receiving treatment and regular checkups at their primary doctor’s office, we will see fewer patients seeking costly treatment at crowded emergency rooms throughout our region and state.”

Sacred Heart is joining LECOM’s Lake Erie Consortium for Osteopathic Medical Training, a group of 32 teaching hospitals with more than 700 post-graduate medical education positions in six states.

As a teaching institution, Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola already provides training for more than 250 health professionals during the course of a year. The hospital currently offers residency programs that train physicians who want to specialize in pediatrics, as well as obstetrics and gynecology. Both of those residency programs are in partnership with Florida State University College of Medicine.

“We have seen many graduates from our two existing residency programs choose to stay in Pensacola or surrounding areas, and we anticipate retaining a majority of our internal medicine graduates, as well,” says Dr. Baroco.

To encourage physicians to remain here, the program will offer incentives to internal medicine resident physicians who make early commitments to practice medicine in this region for a specific period of time.  An internist is the person most adults think of first and foremost as their personal physician. They are trained in the diagnosis and non-surgical treatment of severe and chronic illnesses. They also provide preventive care, screening, patient education, care in the hospital and follow-up care after hospitalization.

Sacred Heart has named Dr. John Retzloff as medical director for the residency program. He is an internal medicine physician who has practiced with Sacred Heart Medical Group for the past 10 years.

In addition to the grant awarded by Florida’s Great Northwest, Sacred Heart has also received a $1 million in state funding which will be supplemented by $312,000 of the hospital’s own funds to underwrite the cost of starting the residency program. “We are grateful to our legislative delegation in Northwest Florida for their support,” Heckathorn said. “They recognized that the residency program will provide both healthcare benefits and economic benefits to our region.”

A residency in internal medicine means three years of education and training for medical school graduates. The resident physician practices medicine under the supervision of fully licensed physicians, usually in a hospital or clinic. Successful completion of residency training is a requirement to practice medicine in many states.

For more information about the Internal Medicine Residency Program at Sacred Heart Hospital, contact Michael Trainor, director of residency programs, at 850-416-2497.

Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM) is the fastest growing medical college in the nation and offers some of the most innovative learning programs within osteopathic medicine. LECOM has campuses in Erie, Pa., and Bradenton, Fla. For more information about LECOM, visit its Web site at www.lecom.edu.

   ###About Sacred Heart

Sacred Heart Health System is a not-for-profit, public-benefit teaching and research health system with more than 5,000 employees and healthcare facilities in five Northwest Florida counties and one Southern Alabama county. For more information about Sacred Heart Health System, visit our Web site at www.sacred-heart.org.