HCA Healthcare-Mercer University School of Medicine-Memorial Health University Medical Center Program

Program Identity & Fit

This is a large community-based, university-affiliated (Mercer University School of Medicine) internal medicine program housed at a 711-720 bed tertiary/quaternary referral center in Savannah that serves as the region's only Level 1 trauma center and a regional hub for stroke, cardiac, cancer, and high-risk obstetric care, giving residents university-caliber pathology within an HCA community hospital structure. The program uses an ABC block schedule to protect a genuine continuity clinic modeled on the Yale Office-Based Curriculum, runs a structured night-team system, and emphasizes practical outpatient exposure across subspecialty selectives (ID, nephrology, endocrinology, neurology) alongside a formal Resident Career Enhancement curriculum covering contracts, practice setup, and fellowship planning. Scholarly activity is present and supported (required PI projects, EBM/journal club, HCA's national research infrastructure and Scholarly Commons) but is not the program's defining identity; roughly 80% of graduates go directly into outpatient or hospitalist practice, with about 20% pursuing fellowship, and away rotations are explicitly encouraged for those seeking one. The program pairs close 1:1 faculty-resident interaction and mentorship/academic-advisor structuring with HCA's system-wide wellness framework, signaling a value on resident well-being and individualized career planning as much as clinical volume.