St. Elizabeth Family Medicine Residency Earns Two National Accreditations

From left, Vimmi Panchal, MD and Seneque Milien, MD discuss a patient's progress at the Sister Rose Vincent Family Medicine Center. Both are third-year residents of the St. Elizabeth Family Medicine Residency Program.

UTICA, N.Y. – St. Elizabeth Medical Center’s (SEMC’s) Family Medicine Residency has earned osteopathic recognition from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). It also received continuing accreditation through June 2020 from the American Osteopathic Association (AOA) achieving scores of 100 percent for the Institutional and 99 percent for the Residency Program.

There are 30 residents in training, 10 in each year of the three-year program, which is an affiliate of Mohawk Valley Health System. Last June’s graduation brought the total number of family physicians completing the nationally accredited, three-year, postdoctoral training program to 257.

The ACGME and the AOA Graduate Medical Education Accreditation Systems will be fully merged in July 2020, creating a new, single accreditation system. When fully implemented, the new system will allow graduates of osteopathic and allopathic medical schools to complete their residency and/or fellowship education in any accredited program.

“The community will benefit from the single system which standardizes residency training expectations to better meet the healthcare needs of our country,” said Residency Program Director, Mark Warfel, DO, FAAFP. “Recognition as a Program with Osteopathic Distinction speaks to the value of the osteopathic component.”

Through osteopathic-focused residency programs, the new accreditation system will broaden the recognition of the principles and practices component of the osteopathic medical profession and its contributions to healthcare. Osteopathic medicine emphasizes the interrelationship between structure and function, and includes an appreciation of the body's ability to heal itself. Doctors of Osteopathy (DOs) are fully licensed to practice in all specialty areas including surgery.

The Family Medicine Residency Program was established in 1975 and expanded in 1995 when it relocated to its current location on 120 Hobart Street in Utica. The program has been shown to be an effective tool to attract and retain family practice physicians to the Greater Utica area. In addition, its resident physicians make up the majority of providers who practice at Sister Rose Vincent Family Medicine Center in an underserved area of Utica. Without the residents, it would be difficult to provide care to this patient population.

###

Faxton St. Luke’s Healthcare and St. Elizabeth Medical Center are affiliates under the Mohawk Valley Health System.