Local hospital shutting down residency program this summer
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BLACKFOOT — After June 30, Bingham Memorial Hospital will no longer be offering an internal medicine residency program.
In October, the review committee of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education notified the hospital of its decision to withdraw accreditation for the program effective June 30.
“We are deeply disappointed by the review committee’s decision,” hospital spokesman Jericho Cline tells EastIdahoNews.com.
The committee’s reason for shutting down the program was not immediately clear. Though program administrators could appeal the ruling, Cline says they ultimately chose not to due to differences in vision.
“From our perspective, (we felt the committee’s) vision for residency training had fallen out of alignment with our own vision. As a result, the difficult decision was made to retire our residency training program this June,” says Cline.
Eleven people have graduated from the program since its inception in 2014.
Once the current crop of medical students graduates, residency training at Bingham Memorial Hospital will no longer be an option.
Cline says although the residency program is going away, the decision will have no impact on daily operations or the hospital’s ability to see patients. He also says staff will continue to provide the best educational experience for their current residents while helping them find placement in other programs.