Memorial Health adds residency spots to address physician shortage

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - A Savannah hospital is working to address the physician shortage and bring more opportunities for local medical students.

Memorial Health is adding 13 residency spots in critical fields to help keep medical students local and provide easier transitions from the classroom to the operating room.

Memorial Health was approved to bring 13 new transitional year residency positions to coastal Georgia.

“There are some very qualified doctors that their options are simply limited just because we don’t have these programs here in Savannah,” said Dr. Timothy Connelly, internal medicine physician at Memorial Health and program director. “So that kind of lit a fire under me to try and help and establish a TY program so that we can bridge those residents.”

The new program is aiding local students who may be forced to leave coastal Georgia for one year of school, a financial burden the director of the program has seen.

“When we train people at Mercer and Medical College of Georgia if they trained in Savannah they’re going to have to move, but now we have that one-year bridge program here which in the future will make it much easier for us to bring those other types of residency programs to Savannah and attract better and keep the people that we have in our town,” Connelly said.

William Hannah, designated institutional official at Memorial Health, said the new opportunity could be the answer to keeping doctors in the area after residency.

“Our goal would be to retain them here in some of our programs in Savannah and ultimately to keep them in Georgia and to provide a physician supply for hopefully not only Georgia but rural Georgia as well,” Hannah said.

The transitional one year residency program already has hundreds of applicants and will officially kick off in July.