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Family Med transfers residency program 

After several months of negotiation, the MUSC Family Medicine Residency Program officially became the Trident Family Medicine Residency Program this September. The transfer in administration of the family medicine residency to Trident represented another step in the collaboration between MUSC and other health care providers in the community.

Four years ago, the MUSC Department of Family Medicine moved the residency training practice to the campus of Trident Medical Center in North Charleston and began performing selected inpatient rotations in the Trident facility. The residents' practice has grown from about 2,000 visits in the first year to almost 18,000 visits in the last year. Over the same time period, additional inpatient rotations in obstetrics and emergency medicine have been moved to Trident. 

The decision to move administration of the program to Trident reflected the commitment of the Trident Medical Center administration to supporting the residency program and expanding residency training at Trident. 

In September, the family medicine residents became Trident employees instead of MUSC employees. In addition, Trident Medical Center will assume the lease for the Family Practice Center and will provide academic support to the MUSC Department of Family Medicine, which will continue to provide faculty for the program as well as all educational support.

The closer relationship with Trident fits with the overall plans for MUSC. 

“When I assumed the presidency of the Medical University at the beginning of this year, one of my goals was enhancing the role of MUSC as a resource for the community and improving the relationship between the Medical University and community physicians,” said MUSC President Ray Greenberg, M.D., Ph.D. 
“This partnership with Trident Health System helps us come closer to realizing our goal of working closely with other health providers in the community.”

The Department of Family Medicine also is pleased with the arrangement. “There is no question in anyone's minds that the educational quality of the training for primary care residents has been excellent since we moved to Trident,” said Bill Hueston, M.D., chair of the MUSC Department of Family Medicine.  “The partnership we have forged with Trident will only make a strong program stronger.”

Residents in family medicine will continue to come to MUSC for rotations in pediatrics and on the inpatient family medicine teaching service as well as participate in obstetric deliveries for family medicine patients at MUH.