There are multiple compelling reasons for Samaritan Health Services to aspire to a leadership role in graduate medical education (GME), including the following:

• The U.S. is facing a projected shortage of physicians in the coming decades and the magnitude of the shortage is expected to grow as the baby boomer generation ages and begins requiring more health care services. In response to the projected physician shortage, many medical schools are increasing their class size, which creates a larger pool of graduating physicians seeking GME positions.
• The current and projected future shortage of physicians is particularly acute in rural communities.
• The recruitment and retention of excellent clinician-educators depends in large part upon SHS’s ability to offer a stimulating and supportive environment for faculty clinical practice. The existence of GME programs is one of the critical elements in building the clinical environment that offers the type of intellectual stimulation and practice interactions that will be attractive to the best teaching physicians.
• There is a significant body of literature that suggests that clinical quality and patient outcomes are better in teaching settings than in non-teaching settings. Therefore, the existence of GME programs will strengthen our ability to serve the community and assure quality in clinical services.

For these reasons, and consistent with its mission, Samaritan Health Services is committed to establishing high quality graduate medical education programs.

In its capacity as institutional sponsor, the SHS Office of Medical Education is responsible for assuring that the residency programs in our hospital system provides quality education and excellent clinical training, and meets all accreditation requirements.

To accomplish the oversight required of an institutional sponsor, SHS established the Office of Medical Education and appointed its first Director of Medical Education. The Office of Medical Education provides centralized administrative support for all undergraduate and graduate medical education for SHS.

SHS also established the Graduate Medical Education Committee which serves as a forum for oversight of GME programs and activities. Chaired by the Director of Medical Education, the GME membership is comprised of program directors, program administrators, key faculty, as well as peer-selected residents with an interest in GME quality and accreditation. GMEC meets on a regular basis and fulfills the following responsibilities, among others:

• Performance of mid-cycle internal reviews of all residency programs.
• Review of annual reports from all residency programs.
• Review of reports of site visits and letters of accreditation.
• Evaluation of plans for major changes in residency complement or program.

• Development of policies required by GME pertaining but not limited to:

• resident selection, evaluation, promotion and graduation
• work-hours and conditions of employment
• institutional support systems
• faculty supervision