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From the Director

The Future of Family Medicine at Columbus Regional

There are numerous factors that contribute to the decision regarding where to train for your Family Medicine residency experience, and quite possibly where you’ll practice. I sincerely feel that Columbus, Georgia has much to offer, not only as a quality training experience but also for quality of life and potential practice site.

Our 413-bed tertiary care hospital, Columbus Regional Medical Center, is a regional referral center for a 50-mile radius in west central Georgia. Because our unopposed training program is the only physician-training program in the hospital, our residents get solid “hands-on” training from neonatology through geriatrics and nursing home care. Our Family Physician faculty combined with numerous specialist faculty members and many community preceptors ensure appropriate supervision and independence as a resident matures in the program.

There are 85 Family Physician graduates on the medical staff at The Medical Center, and they provide the bulk of the primary care in the Columbus area. Columbus has grown significantly with the military BRAC program (Base Realignment and Closure as the Army consolidates the Armor School from Fort Knox to Fort Benning’s Infantry Center). with an estimated 25,000 more people relocating to the Columbus-Fort Benning. Columbus has been identified as the healthiest economic area in Georgia and one of the leading growth areas in the country.  With this growth projected here, practice opportunities should be plentiful as you graduate.?In a parallel development, Columbus Regional Healthcare System, our parent organization, has purchased Doctors Hospital, a 200-bed hospital adjacent to our campus and the Hughston orthopedic hospital in north Columbus. Our organization is on solid financial footing and the Doctors Hospital purchase should only improve the care of the community, our financial standing and educational opportunities for residents and medical students.

Some of the important considerations for training with Columbus Regional Healthcare System are:

iPads!!- For the 2012 academic year, the Medical Education Department purchased iPad3’s for all residents and faculty as we transition to converting our curriculum and patient care documentation to mobile devices.

Athena Electronic Health Record – We have been on electronic health records since 2004. AthenaClinicals offers an excellent platform for chronic disease management, quality studies and e-prescribing.

Innovative Electronic Curriculum - We are very excited about the incorporation of the Challenger Program for Residencies, an internet-based electronic curriculum that we’ve customized for each resident in our program. It incorporates excellent Board and USMLE review. (Take a peek at www.chall.com; at the top of the page, click on “Clinical Education Systems”, then select For Residencies).

Resident Computer Lab - In support of our Challenger curriculum and Centricity Electronic Health record, we’ve installed a new 14-PC computer lab exclusively for residency use. Of course, since both are internet-based, they can be accessed on line from anywhere.

Board Certification Preparation - The program has numerous mechanisms to prepare its graduates for successful ABFM board exam success. The new Challenger program will become a foundation, along with the board review activities built into the curriculum.

Career options - One of the best quotes I’ve ever heard about the program was from a medical student when asked about her career choice of Family Medicine. “You can choose your own adventure!” she exclaimed. The residency at The Medical Center in Columbus is the largest and oldest in Georgia and prepares its graduates for adventures. Medical Education in our hospital goes back to the 1940s, and our graduates practice in every corner of Georgia and the southeast. They practice in traditional Family Medicine venues-including hospital work and obstetrics.

Lately, our graduates have added other career options to the long list of graduates providing excellent primary care to their patients. They have become hospitalists, urgent care physicians and many gravitate to full-time emergency medicine positions. Some pursue Fellowships. In the last 15 years, 100% of the residents seeking Fellowship training received their fellowships in Obstetrics, Hospice and Palliative Care,Sports Medicine, Geriatrics or Hospital Medicine.

Our residency and internship training programs are dually accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and the American Osteopathic Association (AOA). Applicants may send us their applications via the NRMP or the AOA matching programs.

We invite you to contact us to find out more about our program!

John R. Bucholtz, D.O.
Director of Medical Education
Program Director, Family Medicine Residency Program
1900 10th Avenue, Suite 100
Columbus, Georgia 31901
Phone: 706.571.1430
Fax: 706.571.1604
Email: john.bucholtz@crhs.net

Undergraduate: Washington and Jefferson College, 1978
Medical School: Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine 1982
Residency: Martin Army Community Hospital, Fort Benning, Georgia 1985
Fellowship: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Faculty Development, 1990
Professional Interests: computers in medicine, physician professional development
Hobbies: Pittsburgh Steelers football, Macintosh computers, landscaping
 
As the region's leading provider of healthcare, Columbus Regional Healthcare System has touched the lives of most of the children and adults in this region through its comprehensive network of services. Located in the West Georgia city of Columbus, Columbus Regional was established in 1986 as a not-for-profit health services organization, but its roots can be traced back to 1836 when the local hospital was a small wooden building on the banks of the Chattahoochee River.