PeaceHealth, UW Collaborate on Residency Program

— from Lori Polevoi for PeaceHealth —

PeaceHealth, in collaboration with the University of Washington School of Medicine’s Division of Emergency Medicine, is hosting four Emergency Medicine physicians this summer in a newly created rural residency program at PeaceHealth Peace Island Medical Center in Friday Harbor.

All of the physicians are entering their fourth year of specialty training and will complete a four-week rural residency rotation at PeaceHealth Peace Island Medical Center. In July the residents are Olivia Haesloop, MD, and Sean Nguyen, MD; in August Allison Moyes, MD, and Scott Schwitz, MD.

PeaceHealth Peace Island Medical Center was selected by the UW School of Medicine as a designated rural training site for the quality of the medical facility and because all eight of the medical center’s Emergency Medicine physicians are board certified, signifying expertise in their specialty achieved through rigorous testing and peer evaluation. Residents must be supervised by board-certified or board-eligible physicians. Additionally, Jason Heiner, MD, who is the residency site director, and Michael Sullivan, MD, who is the medical center’s Emergency Department director, have academic appointments in the UW Division of Emergency Medicine.

Nationwide, only 25 percent of emergency physicians staffing small, rural emergency departments are board certified, and only 5 percent of emergency medicine residency programs require a rural rotation. Consequently, rural emergency departments often are staffed by physicians with less training and expertise than urban emergency departments.

The collaboration between Peace Island Medical Center and University of Washington School of Medicine will help address this discrepancy, as physicians who have completed a rural emergency medicine residency are more likely to choose to work in a rural community than those without the rural experience.

“We’re proud to partner with the University of Washington to provide a truly unique and valuable experience and to welcome these experienced physicians into our community,” says Dr. Heiner.
PeaceHealth Peace Island Medical Center comprises a 10-bed critical access hospital, primary care and specialty clinics, a cancer center, expanded diagnostic and treatment services, an operating suite for outpatient procedures and a 24-hour emergency department. PeaceHealth Peace Island operates as part of PeaceHealth’s Northwest Network, which includes PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center in Bellingham, PeaceHealth United General Medical Center in Sedro-Woolley, several PeaceHealth Medical Group primary care and specialty clinics, cardiovascular and cancer centers, diagnostic laboratory and imaging services. PeaceHealth, with medical centers in Alaska, Washington and Oregon, is a not-for-profit health care system founded by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace in 1891.