Piedmont Athens Regional’s graduate medical education program has received accreditation from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education for a new transitional year residency program, which will begin in July 2018.

This new transitional year program is an intensive one-year program that allows residents to develop fundamental clinic skills while also tailoring experiences through selected elective rotations, preparing residents for selected medical specialties.

“We are pleased to receive this accreditation, as it shows the advances our hospital’s graduate medical education program has made since it began in 2016,” said Dr. Charles Peck, president and CEO of Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Center. “Piedmont Athens Regional’s residency program works to provide exceptional, high-quality care while training the next generation of doctors in our community.”

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, an organization responsible for the accreditation of graduate medical education programs throughout the United States, works to improve healthcare and population health by assessing and advancing the quality of resident physicians’ education through accreditation.

“We are also pleased to announce that Piedmont Athens Regional’s internal medicine residency program recently received continued accreditation from the accreditation council,” Peck said. “Our program will be at its full complement of 45 residents come July. Together, these two programs help address the future physician workforce needs in the state of Georgia”

Piedmont Athens Regional’s residency program is affiliated with the Augusta University-University of Georgia Medical Partnership. Through the program, residents work under the faculty at Piedmont Athens Regional, who serve as teachers and mentors in their development as internists. Residents also have the opportunity to conduct innovative research and complete hands-on training in the hospital as well as in the hospital’s Community Care Clinic.