Memorial Facilities Earn Teaching Hospital Designation From State Agency

Memorial Regional Hospital (including Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital), Memorial Regional Hospital South, and Memorial Hospital West have all achieved statutory teaching hospital designation from the State of Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration (ACHA). Prior to Memorial’s inclusion, fewer than 12% of the more than 325 hospitals in Florida had been accorded this status.

The statutory teaching hospital designation is granted to hospitals with at least 100 or more full-time resident physicians in seven or more graduate medical education programs accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) or the Council on Postdoctoral Training of the American Osteopathic Association.

“We were able to secure these designations after only five years as a graduate medical education (GME) program, solidifying our standing as a major academic medical center,” said Saima Chaudhry, MD, Memorial Healthcare System’s chief academic officer. “It also makes our program more attractive to residents, fellows, and teaching faculty as we maintain our commitment to train South Florida’s next generation of physicians and specialists.”

Memorial’s GME program, which uses its hospitals for on-the-job, physician training that supplements classroom instruction, includes 15 accredited programs (11 residencies and four fellowships). Many of these areas of study are ones the State of Florida has determined will likely have a shortage of specialists in the years to come.

Statutory teaching hospital designation also potentially qualifies academic centers for additional state funding for programs.