Guthrie Receives National Accreditation for Two New Educational Programs

Guthrie Robert Packer Hospital is proud to announce that the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) has approved initial accreditation status for two new physician training programs. Guthrie will be launching an Emergency Medicine residency in July 2019, and a Pulmonary and Critical Care fellowship in July 2020.

Dr. Brian Fillipo, head of Medical Education at Guthrie, said: “We are so pleased to be granted initial accreditation for our new programs. This accreditation comes after months of planning and work by our teams and truly highlights the importance that Guthrie places on the training of the future generation of physicians.”

Guthrie’s Emergency Medicine Residency will be led by Dr. Gregory Christiansen. He joined Guthrie in 2018 and has played a key role in preparing for a residency program focused on rural emergency medicine. The new program will be based in the hospital’s soon to be completed new Emergency Department and will welcome its first class of residents this summer.   

The new Guthrie Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship will be led by Dr. James Walsh, who has been a pulmonologist and intensivist with Guthrie since 1992. In 2014, Dr. Walsh led the grand opening of Guthrie Robert Packer Hospital’s renovated Intensive Care Unit. The new unit, which was designed with healing in mind, has allowed the hospital to increase the number of critically ill patients it cares for. The fellowship will begin recruitment for its first class of fellows next fall.

Guthrie has a long history of medical education and has offered training programs for physicians at the hospital for almost 100 years. Its Internal Medicine residency was founded in 1958 and its General Surgery residency was founded in 1959. The hospital also hosts a Family Medicine residency and a Cardiovascular fellowship and will also be opening its doors this July to a Gastroenterology fellowship.

Guthrie is a non-profit integrated health system located in north central Pennsylvania and upstate New York, serving patients from a twelve-county service area. Guthrie is a member of the Mayo Clinic Care Network and is the first health system based in Pennsylvania and New York to join this network. Guthrie is comprised of a research institute, home care/hospice, hospitals in Sayre, Pa., Corning, N.Y., Towanda, Pa., Troy, Pa. and Cortland, N.Y., as well as a multi-specialty group practice of more than 325 physicians and 210 advanced practice providers offering 47 specialties through a regional office network providing primary and specialty care in 22 communities in Pennsylvania and New York. In addition, Guthrie offers home medical equipment and respiratory therapy products at seven convenient Med Supply Depot locations. Guthrie provides a wide range of services and programs to enhance the health and well-being of those it serves.