The mission of Memorial Health System's Family Medicine Residency Program is to train outstanding leaders in the field of family medicine. We recently received accreditation from the ACGME for a family medicine residency program that will allow our health system to bring more quality physicians to our area.
Roxanne Cech, MD, is the director of this residency program, and she joins the show to discuss what this means for our system and our community.
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Memorial Health System Family Medicine Residency Program
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Learn more about Roxanne Cech, MD
Roxanne Cech, MD
Roxanne Cech, MD received her medical degree from the University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences (Medical College of Ohio) in Toledo, Ohio. She completed her residency in family practice from the University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, Ohio.Learn more about Roxanne Cech, MD
Transcription:
Melanie Cole: Memorial Health System recently received accreditation from ACGME for a family medicine residency program that will allow the health system to bring more quality physicians to the area. My guest is Dr. Roxanne Cech. She's a primary care provider and the director of the family medicine residency program at Memorial Health System. What did you have to do to get this program started?
Dr. Roxanne Cech: We had to fill out an extensive application showing the national accreditation body what all we had to provide here that could be used to educate young physicians and to educate them in a quality fashion. We were just thrilled to find the end of April that they decided that we had substantial compliance with all of their rules and that we could start the program.
Melanie: As tough as it is to get this accreditation, what are some of your personal goals for this program? What are you looking to do?
Dr. Cech: Some of my personal goals are to train these young physicians to really listen to their patients. Over the years, that’s been one of the biggest complaints that I've heard from patients, that the doctors don’t listen to them anymore. Obviously, the whole country is going through a lot of changes regarding medical care, but that ability to listen to the patient and to understand them is still vital and still valued. I think if we can accomplish that, we will have done a lot for the community.
Melanie: Before we talk some more about the community itself, what are some of the requirements for the program for the residents themselves? Is this tough for them to get into? How does that happen?
Dr. Cech: Residency is the period of training that occurs right after medical school. All of these young people that will be coming to us starting next year in July will all be physicians. They will have completed medical school either in osteopathic medical school or in allopathic medical school. That means they can be MDs or DOs. They will need to have completed that successfully, they will be interviewing with many different programs and going through a program called The Match, the national residency matching program. In that program, the residency program lists the doctors that they would like to have come with them and then the residents list the programs they would like to go to and the computer just matches them up. It’s a lot of time, it’s a lot of meeting new people and trying to determine if they'd be a good fit for our system and if we’re a good fit for them.
Melanie: What are you looking for? You mentioned about spending time with patients. What are you looking for in the residents as family medicine is a family field caring for children through adults? How do you envision the perfect family physician?
Dr. Cech: The perfect family physician is someone who can relate to other people effectively and we all don’t do it the same way. I can't say they will voice everything in exactly the same way as I do, but we will be looking for that effectiveness in someone who cares and can show that they care about the patient. The other part that we’ll be looking for is also their scientific knowledge because one of the ways that we as physicians care for our patients is to do all of the right things at the right time. We want someone who looks smart in the common way of saying it. We want doctors who really know what they're doing and how to think through the problem in a logical fashion and then be able to explain it to the patient. In addition, we’re going to be looking for people who have leadership qualities. Leadership can mean a lot of different things, but in our sense in the medical community, it means a physician who can help other physicians move forward with all the changes that we have in medicine and they understand the financial requirements. Obviously, medicine is a business and so we have to teach them how to be reasonable business managers so they can keep their doors open and continue to care for the people that want to come see them. We’re looking for a foundation of those things; leadership, the compassion, caring, communication, and scientific knowledge.
Melanie: How does this fit into the medical home picture? If you're going to have a family medicine residency program, and organizations are really encouraging this medical home, is that going to fit into this whole feeling of finding a physician that you can trust that can take you with your kids all the way through?
Dr. Cech: It really is. The two have to go together. The whole idea of the medical home is the old idea of saying I've got my doctor and that's where I'll always go first. What we will be doing through the residency program is making sure that they understand how to do that, how to schedule people correctly, how to work with their nurses, how to work with any other advanced practice individuals such as nurse practitioners or physician assistants so the people are taken care of when they need to be taken care of. That will help our community on the whole and nationally, and also by reducing health care costs, so the people don't feel they have to go to the emergency room all the time, but now I know I can get to my doctor or I could talk to them on the phone or they'll see me in later evening hours to take care of my problem. I think that's really exciting. One of the best things is that when people trust you like that, there's such a wonderful relationship that occurs that you just enjoy seeing the people, so it becomes not so much work, but actual fun.
Melanie: Isn't that really the goal? Tell us what this means for the community and for Memorial Health System.
Dr. Cech: Memorial Health System was really looking ahead and knew that the need for primary care was great in this area of southeast Ohio and it’s very difficult to get new doctors to come into a smaller town. This is a problem nationally. The administration thought of doing the residency program so that we could actually train the people here that would be comfortable with the area and hopefully many of them will stay. There's really a huge goal to train them correctly and well so that we keep good doctors here, and in fact, not just good doctors but we want great doctors so the whole community can benefit.
Melanie: Isn't that so great for the community? Wrap it up for us with what you would like the community to know about the family medicine residency program starting soon at Memorial Health System and just what you'd like them to know about finding that perfect primary care provider, someone that they can trust that can work with their families at every age.
Dr. Cech: First of all, about the residency, it’s important for them to know that the residency will be starting here based out of the Belpre campus in July of 2019. I will be the program director, but Dr. Sarah Taylor who is also here in Belpre already and Dr. Tina Lee who is moving here from Wheeling will be the other founding members, so if they come to see us over this next year, they will then be able to see the residents next year, so we have plenty of availability for people to be seen now. I want them to know that we’re passionate about educating and I want the patients to be passionate about educating too. They're part of this whole education process. They need to tell the residents what they need so the residents can incorporate that into their lifelong learning.
Melanie: Great information. Thank you so much for all of this information and good luck with this residency program. It’s going to be a hit for the community. You're listening to Memorial Health Radio with Memorial Health System. For more information, please visit mhsystem.org. That’s mhsystem.org. This is Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for listening.
Melanie Cole: Memorial Health System recently received accreditation from ACGME for a family medicine residency program that will allow the health system to bring more quality physicians to the area. My guest is Dr. Roxanne Cech. She's a primary care provider and the director of the family medicine residency program at Memorial Health System. What did you have to do to get this program started?
Dr. Roxanne Cech: We had to fill out an extensive application showing the national accreditation body what all we had to provide here that could be used to educate young physicians and to educate them in a quality fashion. We were just thrilled to find the end of April that they decided that we had substantial compliance with all of their rules and that we could start the program.
Melanie: As tough as it is to get this accreditation, what are some of your personal goals for this program? What are you looking to do?
Dr. Cech: Some of my personal goals are to train these young physicians to really listen to their patients. Over the years, that’s been one of the biggest complaints that I've heard from patients, that the doctors don’t listen to them anymore. Obviously, the whole country is going through a lot of changes regarding medical care, but that ability to listen to the patient and to understand them is still vital and still valued. I think if we can accomplish that, we will have done a lot for the community.
Melanie: Before we talk some more about the community itself, what are some of the requirements for the program for the residents themselves? Is this tough for them to get into? How does that happen?
Dr. Cech: Residency is the period of training that occurs right after medical school. All of these young people that will be coming to us starting next year in July will all be physicians. They will have completed medical school either in osteopathic medical school or in allopathic medical school. That means they can be MDs or DOs. They will need to have completed that successfully, they will be interviewing with many different programs and going through a program called The Match, the national residency matching program. In that program, the residency program lists the doctors that they would like to have come with them and then the residents list the programs they would like to go to and the computer just matches them up. It’s a lot of time, it’s a lot of meeting new people and trying to determine if they'd be a good fit for our system and if we’re a good fit for them.
Melanie: What are you looking for? You mentioned about spending time with patients. What are you looking for in the residents as family medicine is a family field caring for children through adults? How do you envision the perfect family physician?
Dr. Cech: The perfect family physician is someone who can relate to other people effectively and we all don’t do it the same way. I can't say they will voice everything in exactly the same way as I do, but we will be looking for that effectiveness in someone who cares and can show that they care about the patient. The other part that we’ll be looking for is also their scientific knowledge because one of the ways that we as physicians care for our patients is to do all of the right things at the right time. We want someone who looks smart in the common way of saying it. We want doctors who really know what they're doing and how to think through the problem in a logical fashion and then be able to explain it to the patient. In addition, we’re going to be looking for people who have leadership qualities. Leadership can mean a lot of different things, but in our sense in the medical community, it means a physician who can help other physicians move forward with all the changes that we have in medicine and they understand the financial requirements. Obviously, medicine is a business and so we have to teach them how to be reasonable business managers so they can keep their doors open and continue to care for the people that want to come see them. We’re looking for a foundation of those things; leadership, the compassion, caring, communication, and scientific knowledge.
Melanie: How does this fit into the medical home picture? If you're going to have a family medicine residency program, and organizations are really encouraging this medical home, is that going to fit into this whole feeling of finding a physician that you can trust that can take you with your kids all the way through?
Dr. Cech: It really is. The two have to go together. The whole idea of the medical home is the old idea of saying I've got my doctor and that's where I'll always go first. What we will be doing through the residency program is making sure that they understand how to do that, how to schedule people correctly, how to work with their nurses, how to work with any other advanced practice individuals such as nurse practitioners or physician assistants so the people are taken care of when they need to be taken care of. That will help our community on the whole and nationally, and also by reducing health care costs, so the people don't feel they have to go to the emergency room all the time, but now I know I can get to my doctor or I could talk to them on the phone or they'll see me in later evening hours to take care of my problem. I think that's really exciting. One of the best things is that when people trust you like that, there's such a wonderful relationship that occurs that you just enjoy seeing the people, so it becomes not so much work, but actual fun.
Melanie: Isn't that really the goal? Tell us what this means for the community and for Memorial Health System.
Dr. Cech: Memorial Health System was really looking ahead and knew that the need for primary care was great in this area of southeast Ohio and it’s very difficult to get new doctors to come into a smaller town. This is a problem nationally. The administration thought of doing the residency program so that we could actually train the people here that would be comfortable with the area and hopefully many of them will stay. There's really a huge goal to train them correctly and well so that we keep good doctors here, and in fact, not just good doctors but we want great doctors so the whole community can benefit.
Melanie: Isn't that so great for the community? Wrap it up for us with what you would like the community to know about the family medicine residency program starting soon at Memorial Health System and just what you'd like them to know about finding that perfect primary care provider, someone that they can trust that can work with their families at every age.
Dr. Cech: First of all, about the residency, it’s important for them to know that the residency will be starting here based out of the Belpre campus in July of 2019. I will be the program director, but Dr. Sarah Taylor who is also here in Belpre already and Dr. Tina Lee who is moving here from Wheeling will be the other founding members, so if they come to see us over this next year, they will then be able to see the residents next year, so we have plenty of availability for people to be seen now. I want them to know that we’re passionate about educating and I want the patients to be passionate about educating too. They're part of this whole education process. They need to tell the residents what they need so the residents can incorporate that into their lifelong learning.
Melanie: Great information. Thank you so much for all of this information and good luck with this residency program. It’s going to be a hit for the community. You're listening to Memorial Health Radio with Memorial Health System. For more information, please visit mhsystem.org. That’s mhsystem.org. This is Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for listening.