ChristianaCare Named One of America’s 50 Best Teaching Hospitals
In recognition of excellence in training the next generation of doctors, ChristianaCare was named one of the 50 Best Teaching Hospitals for America by Washington Monthly Magazine.
Compiled in partnership with the Lown Institute, a non-partisan health care think tank, the list ranks teaching hospitals’ performance in patient outcomes, civic leadership and value of care.
“That ChristianaCare stands with traditional university teaching hospitals on this 50 Best Teaching Hospitals list is a great honor and tribute to all of our educators and teachers,” said Chief People Officer Neil Jasani, M.D., MBA.
Premier residency programs
ChristianaCare, the only teaching hospital between Philadelphia and Baltimore, trains 281 residents and fellows in 31 highly competitive residency and fellowship programs annually.
What makes ChristianaCare’s spot on a list of the nation’s top teaching hospitals even more impressive is that Delaware is one of just five states that does not have its own medical school.
But Delaware does have ChristianaCare which serves as one of the largest teaching hospitals for both Thomas Jefferson University’s Sidney Kimmel Medical College and the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM). A subset of third and fourth year medical students from each school chooses to spend the entire year to train at ChristianaCare.
“The community can be assured that they are receiving the highest-quality, cutting-edge care because ChristianaCare is a top teaching hospital,” Dr. Jasani said.
ChristianaCare’s leadership in medical education in Delaware goes back more than 100 years. Along with clinical hospital rotations, ChristianaCare today offers medical students the opportunity to participate in master’s level courses, journal clubs, conferences, mentoring opportunities and educational seminars. The curriculum is built on excellence in clinical education and experience caring for diverse patient populations.
“We strongly believe that academics and training in acute and community care — as well as in research and innovation — are strategic assets,” said ChristianaCare’s Associate Chief Academic Officer Brian Levine, M.D. “Each caregiver we train collectively impacts the health and economy of our community.”
Keys to success
The presence of learners helps ChristianaCare attract and retain outstanding clinical faculty from all over the country.
Key to the success of the program are the unique, strong relationships that develop between students, residents and faculty mentors.
“We really are a family here at ChristianaCare — one that excels not only in excellence in clinical education, but also in teaching caregivers our values of love and excellence,” said Dr. Levine.
Abhishek Sarumpudy, a fourth year medical student at Jefferson, selected ChristianaCare for his clinical rotations because he wanted to train at a busy, nationally recognized health system with a Level 1 trauma center. He said the mentorship opportunities that students receive at ChristianaCare set the program apart from rotations at larger, big-city teaching hospitals.
“The opportunity to train here in Delaware through this amazing program has been priceless,” he said.
The residents and attending physicians — or faculty — at ChristianaCare take the time to get to know each medical student as a person and focus on ways to help make them better doctors.
“We get to build a network of one-on-one relationships with fellow students, and with the residents and our attending physicians,” Sarumpudy said.
Paying it forward
Scientific literature shows that being at an academic medical center, or teaching hospital, improves both the quality and safety of care. It also allows a hospital to stay on the cutting edge with the newest technology to train the next generation.
The state of Delaware supports this endeavor with an innovative program called the Delaware Institute of Medical Education and Research (DIMER).
DIMER and ChristianaCare’s role as a branch campus for Jefferson and PCOM give Delaware medical school applicants an “in state” preference for 30 of the 550 total slots at Jefferson and PCOM. Over the last half century, DIMER has opened doors in a very competitive medical school application process for more than 1,200 Delawareans hoping to train — and ideally practice — here at home.
ChristianaCare’s partnership with DIMER plays a key role in recruiting Delaware students, said Dr. Jasani, who serves on the DIMER board.
And the program pays it forward. Many who enter one of the Philadelphia medical schools through DIMER and the branch campus program return to Delaware to practice medicine. Fourth year student Abhishek Sarumpudy notes his own sister — a family medicine physician — as an example. He hopes to match for a residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics right here at ChristianaCare and become the second Delaware doctor in his family.
“To give back to the community that has given me so much would be just the biggest honor,” he said.
Learn more about ChristianaCare’s nationally recognized residency programs.
