KEENE, NH – Cheshire Medical Center reached a milestone earlier this month in its work to launch a new Family Medicine Residency program.

According to a news release from Cheshire Medical, it received accreditation for the program from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education’s (ACGME) Residency Review Committee on February 1st, 2023.

“Accreditation marks a significant milestone and green light for this program,” Chief Medical Officer Cherie Holmes, MD, MSc said in the release. “This program is unique for its rural location and marks the first residency training program sponsored by Cheshire Medical Center.”

Family Medicine Residency Program Director Karl Dietrich, MD, MPH, said in an interview with WKBK that accreditation from the ACGME is required for any program to function and train residents.

“This was a very necessary step in our movement towards training residents here,” Dietrich said.

The ACGME will do a follow-up evaluation two years after residents are in place, then the intervals for evaluations will be extended after that up to 10 years.

According to the release the program received accreditation about two months ahead of schedule. Dietrich said the recruitment process for residents takes about one year to complete. With the program set to launch in the summer of 2024, now with the accreditation under its belt, recruitment will begin this summer.

“What the slightly earlier accreditation allows us to do is just continue to move forward with all our plans and be able to start that recruitment process early, because any interested resident wants to see that you’re an accredited program,” Dietrich said.

The Family Medicine Residency Program will be housed at the hospital’s new facility at 62 Maple Avenue in Keene, but Dietrich said most Family Medicine patients will stay at the hospital’s Court Street campus.

“Patients who are current patients of some of our faculty physicians, like my patients, will move with us over there. All family medicine patients will learn about the clinic and have the opportunity to move over there if they’re interested.”

To become a family physician, students must first complete medical school, earning a degree as a Doctor of Medicine (MD) or a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO). After earning a degree, aspiring family physicians need to complete a 3-year residency in family medicine, during which they continue their clinical education under a training license, diagnosing and treating patients under the guidance of established faculty doctors. Upon completing of the 3-year residency program, applicants are able to work as family physicians without supervision.

In order to become a family physician, students must complete medical school and earn a degree as a Doctor of Medicine (MD) or a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) and complete a 3-year residency in family medicine where they’ll continue their education under a training license, diagnosing and treating patients under the guidance of established faculty doctors.

“We’ve had wonderful support from the whole Cheshire community, and it’s been exciting to see the program come together,” Dietrich said. “There’s still lots of work to be done but I’m really looking forward to starting to recruit residents this summer and continue to work to address the primary care shortage here in the Monadnock Region.”

More information on the program is available on Cheshire Medical Center’s website.