Why Should Delaware Care?
A new partnership between two of Delaware’s largest health care systems and a Philadelphia medical school aims to expand rural access to health care by placing more medical students in Kent and Sussex county hospitals. The announcement comes shortly after Gov. Matt Meyer began looking for formal partners to help launch Delaware’s first ever medical school.
As Delaware begins work on launching its first medical school, two of its largest health care systems are collaborating on a new program to bring a handful of medical students from Philadelphia to Kent and Sussex counties.
ChristianaCare, Bayhealth and the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM) announced a new partnership Wednesday that will bring five new third-year medical school students to train in southern Delaware beginning this summer.
Called the Delaware Clinical Community Campus, the new partnership is meant to “expand undergraduate medical education and attract more physicians to practice in central and southern Delaware,” according to ChristianaCare’s announcement of the new venture.
ChristianaCare has long partnered with PCOM, bringing medical students to its hospitals in northern Delaware for clinical training. This new initiative is a buildout of that program, bringing in Bayhealth as a new host hospital at which medical students will train.
In the ChristianaCare statement, Bayhealth Chief Medical Officer Dr. Gary Siegelman said bringing medical students to southern Delaware to train could “encourage them to establish their practices right here in Delaware.”
“This directly addresses our workforce needs in underserved areas and enhances access to high-quality care for the patients we serve every day,” he said.
According to the statement, students will complete their core clinical rotations at Bayhealth and ChristianaCare facilities in Kent and Sussex counties, as the program is geared toward expanding rural health care access. The students’ training will include stints in various specialties, including primary care, OB-GYN and psychiatry.
Students also will at ChristianaCare locations in New Castle County in situations when certain services or specialties are not available at a Bayhealth or ChristianaCare facility in Kent and Sussex County, ChristianaCare’s Chief Academic Officer Dr. Brian Levine told Spotlight Delaware.
The rural partnership will eventually be open to all PCOM students, but this year’s first class of five students will all be Delaware residents who take part in the Delaware Institute of Medical Education and Research (DIMER) program.
DIMER is a partnership between Delaware health care systems and Philadelphia-area medical schools that secures admission opportunities for Delawareans at PCOM and the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University. Bayhealth and ChristianaCare then serve as facilities where medical students complete clinical training.
The new partnership comes on the heels of Gov. Matt Meyer’s announcement late last year that he would use a swath of federal grant money to build Delaware’s first-ever medical school.
The state formally began the process of seeking partners to help start up and operate the new school earlier this month.
A spokesperson for ChristianaCare said the health system is “currently evaluating” whether it will submit a proposal to help launch the medical school, and it did not provide further comment.
It remains unclear if the other parties involved in the Delaware Clinical Community Campus – Bayhealth and PCOM – will vie for the opportunity to take part in jumpstarting the First State’s first medical school.