BayCare Graduate Medical Education Ready for Continued Growth

BayCare has made great strides in its graduate medical education (GME) journey and is well-positioned for continued growth. The health system continues to support the growth and development of GME to address the projected physician shortages in the Tampa Bay area and to improve access to care for our community.

In 2020, the health system was granted Initial Accreditation to become an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)-accredited sponsor of graduate medical education (GME). BayCare underwent an ACGME site visit in January 2023, and the ACGME Institutional Review Committee recently shared that it has moved BayCare from Initial to 10-year Continued Accreditation status, which will help the health system move forward with the planned expansion of GME.

The first two residency programs launched in 2022: Psychiatry and Pediatrics, which were approved for 24 residents each. These programs join our previously established family medicine programs affiliated with the University of South Florida program at Morton Plant Hospital (24 residents) and Florida State University (FSU) at Winter Haven Hospital (24 residents).  

The FSU/Winter Haven Hospital Family Medicine program graduated its first class of residents this year. Three of the five graduates will join BayCare Medical Group, one signed with the Polk County Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) and one will be joining a practice in Orlando. All five graduates will remain in the state of Florida, one step closer to addressing the physician shortage, particularly in the Polk County area.

Following a full site visit in March, the ACGME also informed BayCare that it has recently moved the Psychiatry residency program into Continued Accreditation status. The Pediatrics program is expecting its full accreditation site visit from the ACGME in September.

On July 1, BayCare welcomed 32 new residents, and there are now nearly 80 residents under the BayCare umbrella.

Continuing the GME journey, the following programs are in the works:

• An application has been submitted to the ACGME to start a Family Medicine residency program at St. Joseph’s-South, led by Dr. My Myers.
• A large Internal Medicine program is being planned for St. Joseph’s Main/North, under the leadership of Dr. Butros Bazo.  
• Plans are also being finalized for a Surgery program at St. Joseph’s Main/North.
• A 30-resident Internal Medicine program is in the works for Morton Plant North Bay Hospital.
• A 13-resident Transitional Year program was recently approved by the ACGME. Like the Family Medicine residency program, this program is a joint FSU/Winter Haven Hospital program with Dr. Ashley Falk serving as program director.

All of these programs are slated to begin in July 2024. The addition of these programs will more than double the total number of residents currently in the health system.

In addition, BayCare has an aggressive plan to expand its GME footprint throughout BayCare in multiple specialties over the next five years.