Doctors Hospital unveiled its new training facility for resident physicians, Thursday morning.
Georgia Sen. Harold Jones and Georgia Rep. Gary Richardson were among those who attended the ribbon-cutting of the hospital’s Graduate Medical Education (GME) space, on the third floor of the Heart, Lung and Vascular Building.
The space will house Doctors Hospital’s upcoming residency program, which recently received its accreditation from the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), hospital CEO Joanna Conley announced during the ceremony.
In partnership with local healthcare network Medical Associates Plus, the program will begin classes in July of 2026, receiving four resident physicians each year—med school graduates completing their residency education—up to a total of 12 residents.
“We hope that these residents will serve our community, and hopefully some of them will stay and serve throughout the years,” said Dr. Mariam Akhtar, director of the family medicine residency program. “ [We] really want to make sure that our residents and future providers will be able to provide some cost effective care and really provide what this community needs.”
The training will entail a curriculum of simulations, in which residents can practice various clinical situations.
“This gives us the ability to replicate those real life environments and create different experience,” explained Greig Samuelson, director of simulation for the medical education wing of HCA, the company that owns Doctors Hospital.
One of the rooms, for example, is scenario-based. “It could be a trauma scenario, it could a medical scenario,” said Samuelson, such as allergic reactions, infections or sepsis, “and we can replicate that clinical environment.” The training room can become an operating room where the students practice surgical care on specialized mannequins. Another room is a skills lab, where residents can practice specific procedures.
A $7 million investment that included renovating office space, the project has been in the works for three years, notes Conley, part of a sweep of projects that include the upcoming ER facility in events and the orthopedic care center that opened in the hospital earlier this year.
“We know that there are not enough physicians in our community, and that there are a lot of unmet needs for healthcare services across the CSRA,” Conley said. “This new residency program represents an opportunity for us to help bolster that future generation of physicians and make sure that our patients here at the hospital and our community across the CSRA can have access to quality health care.”
While the upcoming GME program will be training physicians going into general and family practice, Conley also said that Doctors Hospital hopes to “add a number of other specialties and residencies in the future.”
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter covering general reporting for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com
