University Medical Center in Lafayette, Louisiana, is a major source of quality healthcare and graduate medical education for its region. This dual role has a significant impact. Under faculty supervision, residents provide healthcare. Once residents complete training, many stay in the area, reinvigorating the healthcare workforce.
Besides the teaching programs based at UMC in family medicine, internal medicine and geriatrics, the hospital has resident rotations from the LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans in ophthalmology, general surgery, cardiology, and ear, nose and throat. LSU HSC New Orleans also sends to UMC orthopedic residents for clinic rotations and OB/GYN residents for gynecological clinical and operative experience.
Family Medicine
Since 2000, the UMC Family Medicine Program has had a total of 94 graduates, with 80 achieving board certification. Seventy-two percent of the residents who graduated from UMC’s Family Medicine Program have remained in Louisiana. Of those, 55 percent are in Acadiana, clear and substantial evidence of the impact of UMC on the region, helping to address the state’s shortage of healthcare professionals.
Internal Medicine
Since 2000, the Internal Medicine Program has had a total of 113 graduates. Of these 28 pursued fellowship or additional specialty residency training. Thirty-five percent of the graduates practice in Acadiana. Fifty-seven percent practice in Louisiana.
Geriatric Medicine Fellowship Program
First accredited in 2007, the UMC Geriatric Medicine Fellowship Program is one of only two such programs in the state. The last accreditation audit found zero deficiencies, resulting in the progam receiving a letter of commendation from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. All five program graduates received certification and are active in geriatric healthcare, a field facing a shortage nationwide. Dr. Lainie Moncada, program director and a graduate of the LSU School of Medicine, received her geriatric fellowship training at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She has two part-time faculty members at UMC.
Rural Scholars Track
Besides the continual infusion of healthcare professionals into the state that UMC graduate medical education programs provide, the LSU Rural Scholars Track Program specifically targets the need for physicians in rural Louisiana. LSU medical students in this program spend their third and fourth years at UMC and are matched with rural primary-care physicians practicing primarily in family medicine, obstetrics/gynecology, pediatrics, general internal medicine and general surgery. Once students complete their professional training, they must return to a designated rural area of Louisiana and practice for at least five years. From 2010 to 2013, UMC will have a total of 38 graduates of the program.
