HCA Healthcare Expands Graduate Medical Education, Offering Positions to Record Class of 1,982 Residents and Fellows

NASHVILLE, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA), one of the nation’s leading healthcare providers, today announced that it has offered 1,982 positions for its July 2021 graduate medical education programs—its largest incoming class to date and the largest nationally among U.S. teaching hospitals.

HCA Healthcare has become a significant provider of clinical and medical education and is the largest sponsor of graduate medical education programs in the United States, with 304 Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) accredited programs, more than 5,100 residents and fellows, and 61 teaching hospitals across 16 states.

“We are continuing to address two critical shortages in the United States—nurses and physicians—by growing our comprehensive graduate medical education programs and clinical education programs,” said Sam Hazen, chief executive officer of HCA Healthcare. “Congratulations to the newly matched group of residents and fellows. Welcome to the HCA Healthcare family.”

According to a study by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the United States could see a shortage of up to 139,000 physicians by 2033. HCA Healthcare is addressing this significant workforce issue by adding more than 3,500 new residency positions since 2014, including more than 500 this year alone, in a broad range of specialties.

Most of HCA Healthcare’s graduate medical education programs are located in the Southeast, across the Sunbelt and in the Inner Mountain West where physician shortages are worse than the national averages and where the population has continued to grow at a rapid rate. This is important to physician workforce development in these regions because about half of all physicians end up practicing in markets where they complete their training, and about two-thirds stay in the same state.

“We’re thrilled to welcome the next generation of physicians who are stepping up in the midst of this pandemic to train alongside us and learn about quality patient care,” said Dr. Michael Cuffe, president of HCA Healthcare’s physician services group.

In addition to its graduate medical education programs, HCA Healthcare has also invested significantly in clinical education, including:

• Nursing schools: HCA Healthcare owns Galen College of Nursing, one of the largest educators of nurses in the United States, with six campuses and nearly 8,000 students enrolled in the January 2021 term. HCA Healthcare, which employs more than 93,000 nurses, has two additional nursing schools, Research College of Nursing and Mercy School of Nursing.
• HCA Healthcare Centers for Clinical Advancement: HCA Healthcare has seven Centers for Clinical Advancement across the country that provide nurses and clinicians with state of the art simulation and learning centers to expand their clinical knowledge in a safe and supportive environment.
• Clinical Certifications: HCA Healthcare also supports colleagues who want to obtain specialty clinical certifications by paying upfront testing costs, providing test preparation materials and reimbursing costs after successful completion of a certification exam. Colleagues also receive bonuses for achieving nationally recognized certifications beyond their current position.

Also aimed at addressing the national physician shortage, HCA Healthcare recently announced a collaboration with Belmont University on the intent to start a new College of Medicine in Nashville. HCA Healthcare’s TriStar Health will provide third year medical students core clinical clerkships and fourth year medical students clinical elective rotations.

About HCA Healthcare

Nashville-based HCA Healthcare is one of the nation’s leading providers of healthcare services comprising more than 2,000 sites of care, including 185 hospitals, surgery centers, freestanding ERs, urgent care centers, and physician clinics, in 20 states and the United Kingdom. With its founding in 1968, HCA Healthcare created a new model for hospital care in the United States, using combined resources to strengthen hospitals, deliver patient-focused care and improve the practice of medicine. HCA Healthcare has conducted a number of clinical studies, including one that demonstrated that full-term delivery is healthier than early elective delivery of babies and another that identified a clinical protocol that can reduce bloodstream infections in ICU patients by 44 percent. HCA Healthcare is a learning health system that uses its more than 32 million annual patient encounters to advance science, improve patient care and save lives. Please click here to connect with HCA Healthcare on social media.

All references to “Company,” “HCA” and “HCA Healthcare” as used throughout this document refer to HCA Healthcare, Inc. and its affiliates.