Merit Health Wesley Residency Celebrates Continued Growth

7/7/2020

Program increases to 67 resident physicians

HATTIESBURG –Merit Health Wesley’s Graduate Medical Education (GME) residency program, which has seen great success since its inception in July 2015, recently held a virtual graduation for 23 resident physicians. At the same time, the GME program welcomed a new class of 28 first-year residents. The program now includes 25 emergency medicine, 30 internal medicine and 13 transitional year residents.

The program started with two areas of focus, Emergency Medicine and Internal Medicine. The Transitional Year Program was added in 2018, growing the program’s size and scope. In 2019, the programs earned accreditation from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and began accepting Doctors of Medicine, in addition to Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine.

“Our programs continue to see growth,” said Sherry Turner, D.O., GME Program Director. “In five years, we’ve grown from four residents to 68. These accomplishments are testaments to the hard work our hospital and community partners, like William Carey University, have put into supporting much-needed physician education.”

During this year’s graduation, the GME suite was renamed in honor of Dr. Turner. She joined the hospital as an emergency medicine physician in 2011 and quickly became the medical director of the department. In 2015, she began the GME program and has served as Chief Academic Officer since that time.

Resident physicians recognized during graduation include:

• Jacob Fenster, D.O. and Drew Trump, D.O. - Emergency Medicine Chief Residents
• Ben Drake, D.O. and Ryan Martin, D.O. - Internal Medicine Chief Residents
• Drew Trump, D.O. - Emergency Medicine Resident of the Year
• Hanish Chauhan, D.O. - Internal Medicine Resident of the Year
• Adi Reddivari, D.O. - . Emergency Medicine Intern of the Year
• Andy Nunez, D.O. - Internal Medicine Intern of the Year
• Hytham Rashid, D.O. - Transitional - Internal Medicine Intern of the Year
• Bry Bishop, D.O. - Transitional - Emergency Medicine Intern of the Year

For more information, click on Residency Programs at the top of the page.

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