OVMC Welcomes New Medical House Staff
06/29/07

Contact: Howard Gamble, MPH
Title: Marketing & Public Relations
Phone: (304)234-8135

Ohio Valley Medical Center’s Graduate Medical Education Department welcomed seven new physician residents and interns, who will join eighteen returning internal medicine, emergency medicine and emergency medicine/internal medicine physician residents.
The new physicians are Dr. Robert Chrest, Emergency Medicine; Dr. Lundyn Fetcko, Emergency Medicine; Dr. Laura Harvey, Emergency Medicine; Dr. Suzette Johnson-Futrell, Emergency Medicine; Dr. Ambika Krishnamurthy, Internal Medicine; Dr. Brian Simic, Internal Medicine/Emergency Medicine and Dr. Brandon White, Internal Medicine.

OVMC’s graduate medical education program focuses on adult, acute and ambulatory care. The focus of the program is education for physicians entering primary care practice in internal and emergency medicine.

“We are very proud of our new interns and residents and grateful to the medical community for supporting our teaching efforts,” said Brian K. Felici, President and CEO of Ohio Valley Medical Center.

In 2001 OVMC expanded the Graduate Medical Education Department with the addition of the Emergency Medicine Residency program. The program is the first and only Emergency Medicine Residency program in West Virginia for osteopathic physicians. The three-year Emergency Medicine residency program follows a traditional Internship, which is required for osteopathic physicians. The Emergency Medicine Residency program will host ten emergency medicine residents.

Physicians can also participate in a new innovative training pathway at OVMC, which allows a physician resident to participate in a combined training in Emergency Medicine and Internal Medicine. Established in 2004, this combine pathway provides the resident with dual certification in both specialties after 5 years of training.

“OVMC has taken the lead again in our state by offering this program,” said Dr. Rick Greco, Director of Medical Education at OVMC. “We feel this is an ideal training for the physician who wants to practice in rural communities of West Virginia and Ohio.”

Dr. Joe Dougherty, who is board certified in both Internal Medicine and Emergency Medicine, heads the Emergency Medicine and Internal Medicine program which will include five residents.

Graduates of the Osteopathic Internal Medicine program have the option of going into a subspecialty such as pulmonary, gastrointestinal, cardiopulmonary, etc. Osteopathic Internal Medicine interns are required to do rotating internships in obstetrics, pediatrics, emergency care, surgery and other areas in order for them to gain exposure to diverse medical fields.

Rick Greco, D.O., who heads up the Osteopathic Internal Medicine Program, said the program is weighted with in-patient, acute care service and integrated with outpatient and ambulatory therapy. The Internal Medicine program will host ten residents. Dr. Shawn Stern will serve as assistance director of the Osteopathic Internal Medicine Program.

OVMC has a long, proud history of being a teaching institution. Currently OVMC provides training for new physicians and radiological technologists. Thousands of healthcare professionals who have cared for several generations of Ohio Valley residents have been trained at OVMC.

OVMC will also host fourteen “Statewide Campus” medical school students. The statewide campus and students are part of the Graduate Medical Education Department at OVMC. The main objective of the statewide campus is to keep medical students within the state for all their clinical rotations. Studies show that nearly 80% of students who complete pre-doctoral training and residency programs within the same state will eventually set up practice in that state.

Students are based at a participating West Virginia hospital for the entirety of their third and fourth years of medical school. This provides a more stable base during their rotations and students and their families would become more established in the communities. In addition, hospitals would have better access to students who could be recruited into their residency programs. Students observe and shadow hospital staff, residents and physicians to get a hand on perspective of healthcare.

“OVMC has been dedicated to teaching physicians and medial personnel for over 40 years,” said Felici. “We think our programs are an asset to the community. Our medial education program allows our hospitals to recruit and maintain high quality physicians for the Ohio Valley.”

OVMC’s Osteopathic Internship, Internal Medicine, Family Practice, Emergency Medicine, Emergency Medicine/Internal Medicine programs are in association with the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine, which provides the administrative support for the programs. WVSOM oversees several training programs throughout the state including hospitals in Morgantown, Clarksburg, Charleston, Logan, and Marrietta, OH.

OVMC is the only hospital in West Virginia providing Osteopathic Emergency Medicine and Osteopathic Emergency Medicine/Internal Medicine residency programs. OVMC also participates in training medical students from the WVSOM, Lake Erie School of Osteopathic Medicine, and West Virginia University. In addition to rotating with OVMC, interns and residents also provide outpatient services through Wheeling Health Right

Ohio Valley Medical Center, located in Wheeling West Virginia, and East Ohio Regional Hospital, located in Martins Ferry Ohio, is a 340 bed combined organization providing quality primary and tertiary healthcare to the Ohio Valley. Ohio Valley Health Services and Education Corporation is the integrated health care delivery system comprising of the two hospitals, River Health Enterprises and Family Service-Upper Ohio Valley.