UTHSC Medical Residency, Fellowship Programs Across State Fully Accredited
The College of Medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center recently received continued accreditation from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) for the university’s Graduate Medical Education (GME), medical residency and fellowship programs, in Memphis, Nashville, and Jackson.
The College of Medicine’s GME programs in Chattanooga and Knoxville also enjoy continuing accreditation status from the ACGME, which oversees the accreditation of medical residency and fellowship programs in the United States.
UTHSC trains the largest number of medical residents and fellows in Tennessee. In 2022, the university trained more than 1,400 medical residents at its campuses across the state. The ACGME accreditations position UTHSC, also the largest educator of health care professionals in Tennessee, to provide outstanding care to individuals at major hospitals across the state.
The UTHSC College of Medicine in Memphis serves as the sponsoring institution for GME programs based in Memphis, Nashville, and Jackson. In these cities, the college provides oversight to 71 ACGME-accredited programs and 33 non-ACGME-accredited programs and research fellowships.
These offer training for more than 900 residents and fellows across three campuses in partnership with outstanding teaching hospital in the region. These hospital partners include Regional One Health, Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, Memphis Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Baptist Memorial Healthcare, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, and St. Francis Hospital in Memphis; West Tennessee Healthcare in Jackson; and Ascension Saint Thomas in Nashville.
In January, the ACGME awarded the UTHSC College of Medicine-Chattanooga continued accreditation as the sponsoring institution for the GME programs in Chattanooga at Erlanger Health System. The Chattanooga GME program provides training for 194 residents and fellows in 22 programs.
The UTHSC College of Medicine’s Graduate School of Medicine in Knoxville at the University of Tennessee Medical Center also has continued accreditation status from the ACGME. The Graduate School of Medicine in Knoxville has received continued accreditation since 1957. It is the sponsoring institution for more than 11 residency and 14 fellowship programs training 250 residents and fellows.
“As a leader in the Graduate Medical Education space at UTHSC, the GME team takes pride in providing service to our GME constituents, providing excellent training opportunities for residents and fellows, and producing a large physician workforce for Tennessee,” said Natascha Thompson, MD, the designated institutional official for Graduate Medical Education and associate dean of Graduate Medical Education at UTHSC. “The most recent ACGME accreditation decision validates the work that is being accomplished in Graduate Medical Education at UTHSC.”
Over the past year, the sponsoring institution (UTHSC), the Graduate Medical Education Office, and the Graduate Medical Education Committee (GMEC) on the Memphis campus have dedicated a substantial amount of time and effort to policy and procedure development, review, and revision, Dr. Thompson said. Resulting from these efforts are new charters for the GMEC and the GMEC subcommittees, updates to the internal review process and procedure, updates to the special review process and procedure, and revision of numerous GME policies.
“Accreditation is fundamental to all our educational programs,” said Robert Kaplan Executive Dean of the College of Medicine and Vice Chancellor for Clinical Affairs Scott Strome, MD. “As such, it is particularly meaningful to be accredited with commendation. This status is due to the incredible leadership of our GME team, our faculty, our residents/fellows, and all of our staff, who work in synergy to make resident education a top priority for the UTHSC College of Medicine.”