40 new residents headed to MountainView Hospital
The first medical residency program at MountainView Hospital has received accreditation, which means as many as 40 doctors-in-training will be working at the Las Vegas facility in July.
Hospital officials were notified Wednesday that the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education had approved MountainView's Internal Medicine Residency Program.
The 20 first-year and 20 second-year residents will be selected after interviews in late October with applicants from around the country.
"This is a significant step forward in the development of medical education in the Las Vegas Valley," MountainView CEO Chris Mowan said.
The staff is excited about turning MountainView into a teaching hospital, said Dr. Darren Swenson, the chief medical officer. In recruiting candidates for the program, Swenson and his colleagues will be looking for any medical students who studied in Nevada or native Nevadans who had to leave the state to continue their education.
"Southern Nevada has been deficient in graduate medical education opportunities," Swenson said. "Many of our medical students, or other students who are from Las Vegas, had to leave the state to get their training. Hopefully, this will be a chance for those doctors to come back to Southern Nevada to start their training or continue their training and stay here and practice medicine.
"We want our Nevada residents to come back home."
MountainView and the University of Nevada School of Medicine have been working to create another teaching hospital in Southern Nevada.
Residency is the final phase of the long educational process required for a physician to practice medicine. There are already residents in training at University Medical Center and Sunrise and Valley hospitals, and other residency and fellowship candidates work at various medical facilities around the valley.
Earlier this year, the Legislature approved Gov. Brian Sandoval's $10 million proposal for graduate medical education programs in Nevada.
Discussions on how that money will be spent have not formally begun, but much of the money is expected to be used in Southern Nevada, where the need for doctors — especially primary care providers — is greatest.
MountainView's program was initiated by its parent, Hospital Corporation of America, which also owns Sunrise and Southern Hills hospitals.
Swenson said MountainView might seek some of the money approved by the Legislature to help create a so-called "continuity clinic" at MountainView. The outpatient clinic, where attending physicians would oversee residents, would give patients a more convenient way to get follow-up care after they're discharged.
Dr. Joe Hardy, a physician and state senator who promoted Sandoval's graduate medical proposal, praised HCA for investing roughly $2 million to create the program.
"If we can get them here to train here, there's a much better chance they'll stay here," said Hardy, R-Boulder City.
Late last month, MountainView announced a $90 million expansion project including the addition of 64 beds and a 225-seat auditorium to support continuing education, community outreach programs and lectures.
Contact Steven Moore at smoore@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4563.
