Florida Hopsitals Plan to Add Teaching Residencies

Five Palm Beach County hospitals plan to add teaching residencies over the next three years, according to a local newspaper.

The Palm Beach Post says the new residency programs are being planned in coordination with the expansion of Florida Atlantic University's Miller School of Medicine. Miller opened a satellite campus in Boca Raton in 2005 and has been using the facilty for 3rd- and 4th-year students. Beginning in 2007, medical students will be able to take all four years of classes at the Boca Raton campus.

The hospitals planning to add residencies are:

• Boca Raton Community Hospital
• Delray Medical Center
• JFK Medical Center (Atlantis, FL)
• Bethesda Memorial Hospital (Boynton Beach, FL)
• St. Mary's Medical Center (West Palm Beach)

The JFK Medical Center hopes to have 48 residents on staff, beginning in 2008. Bethesda Memorial Hospital and Boca Raton Community Hospital hope to have residents by 2o10 at the latest.

As many as 300 residency positions could be available in Palm Beach County by 2012, a Florida Atlantic University official said.

Columbia Hospital in West Palm Beach currently has a small residency program in internal medicine and dermatology. Officials there say that about half of their residents decide to remain in the county and practice medicine after completing their residencies.

Source: "Local Hospitals Take on Task of Teaching," by Phil Galewitz. The Palm Beach Post, August 7, 2007.