The Wright Centers for Community Health and Graduate Medical Education have been awarded three grant awards totaling $1.5 million from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) for the planning and development of three residency programs, further expanding and enriching physician training opportunities in Northeast Pennsylvania.

As a nearly 50-year-old nonprofit enterprise providing graduate medical education and primary health services in Northeastern Pennsylvania, The Wright Center, along with partnering institutions and community providers, intends to explore establishing accredited residency programs in pediatric dentistry, pediatrics, and obstetrics and gynecology.

HRSA’s Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education funding is allocated specifically for physician and dental training that includes community-based and governed care settings, such as The Wright Center for Community Health’s Federally Qualified Health Center Look-Alike venues. The training opportunities created for these residents help to expand and improve the distribution of the nation’s primary health services workforce beyond affluent urban areas to economically disadvantaged areas.

As a grant awardee, The Wright Center may apply its funding to startup costs, including planning meetings, curriculum development, recruitment and training of residents and faculty, and necessary activities related to obtaining program accreditation from either the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) or the Commission on Dental Accreditation.

The successful introduction of these programs will represent another milestone in The Wright Center’s continued strategic growth as a generator of compassionate, highly skilled, and patient-centered physicians who can help to address the region’s and nation’s ongoing health care services inequities and workforce shortages.

The nonprofit organization was founded in 1976 as the Scranton-Temple Residency Program. A year later, it welcomed its first class of six internal medicine residents. Since then, the organization has been renamed and has grown in size and scope to reflect the community’s – and the country’s – evolving needs. It now trains about 250 residents and fellows each academic year in the region and at partner training sites in Arizona, Ohio, Washington state, and Washington, D.C.

The Wright Center currently offers residencies in internal medicine, family medicine, physical medicine & rehabilitation, and psychiatry, as well as fellowships in cardiovascular disease, gastroenterology, and geriatrics. All of its residency and fellowship programs are accredited by the ACGME.

Additionally, in partnership with NYU Langone Dental Medicine, The Wright Center has served as a training site since 2021 for dentists in an Advanced Education in General Dental Residency Program.

National and regional residency programs welcome 85 new residents

The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education welcomed 66 new resident physicians into its four regional residency programs after achieving a 100% match on national Match Day for soon-to-be newly minted doctors.

The National Resident Matching Program’s Match Day is one of the most important events and competitive processes in the medical school experience. On the third Friday of March each year, fourth-year medical students, as well as their graduate medical education programs, learn where they will complete the next stage of their medical training.

The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education matched residents in the following regional programs: Internal Medicine Residency (40); Regional Family Medicine Residency (11); Psychiatry Residency (10), and Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (5). Resident physicians will begin their first-year residencies on July 1 in Scranton.

The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education’s National Family Medicine Residency has filled its resident physician positions at the Tucson, Arizona (4); Auburn, Washington (6); Washington, D.C., (6), and Hillsboro, Ohio (3) training sites.

The incoming first-year residents for the five residencies hail from 16 countries. They are: China (1), Canada (8), Cayman Islands (1), Dubai, UAE (1), Egypt (2), India (15), Iran (1), Libya (1), Nepal (3), Pakistan (12), Philippines (1), Saint Lucia (1), Trinidad and Tobago (1), Turkey (1), Ukraine (1), and the United States (35).

Overall, The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education welcomed 85 new residents into the regional and national programs on Match Day. The residency programs received 5,882 applications and interviewed 811 candidates or 14% of the applicants for the available slots in the five residency programs.

Together with consortium stakeholders, The Wright Center trains residents and fellows in a community-based, community needs-responsive workforce development model to advance their shared mission to improve the health and welfare of our communities through inclusive and responsive health services and the sustainable renewal of an inspired, competent workforce that is privileged to serve.

The Wright Center offers residencies in four disciplines – family medicine, internal medicine, physical medicine & rehabilitation, and psychiatry – as well as fellowships in cardiovascular disease, gastroenterology, and geriatrics. The residency and fellowship programs are accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.

The Wright Center for Patient & Community Engagement’s (TWCPCE) inaugural charity golf tournament on Monday, May 15 benefits the patients served by TWCPCE. The captain-and-crew tournament at Glenmaura National Golf Club features a shotgun start at 10 a.m. Committee members, seated from left, include Dr. Linda Thomas-Hemak, president and CEO, The Wright Centers; honorary chairperson John Kearney, The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education board, and co-chairperson Mary Marrara, The Wright Center for Patient & Community Engagement board; second row, Marianna Eisner, The Wright Centers; Helayna Szescila, The Wright Centers; Lori Cotrone, The Wright Centers; Gerard Geoffroy, The Wright Center for Community Health board; and Kara Seitzinger, The Wright Centers; third row, Ronald P. Daniels, The Wright Centers; Atty. Joseph Price, The Wright Centers; Ed Walsh, The Wright Centers; Nunzi Allergucci, co-chairperson Mark Seitzinger, Ed Cimoch, and Mark Hemak. Missing from the photo are committee members Gail Cicerini, Mary Klem, Danielle Dalessandro, Holly Przasnyski, and Nick Biondi.

The Wright Center for Patient & Community Engagement will hold its inaugural charity golf tournament on Monday, May 15 at the Glenmaura National Golf Club in Moosic in support of the patients The Wright Center for Patient & Community Engagement serves in Northeast Pennsylvania. The captain-and-crew tournament will feature a shotgun start at 10 a.m. 

John Kearney, a Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education board member, is serving as honorary chairperson of the fundraiser. Mary Marrara, a member of The Wright Centers for Community Health and Patient & Community Engagement boards, and Mark Seitzinger are serving as co-chairpersons.

The entry fee for golfers is $250, which includes lunch and beverage service on the course, followed by a cocktail hour and dinner. A wide selection of sponsorship levels is available for the tournament. For details and inquiries regarding sponsorships, please contact Holly Przasnyski, board coordinator, at przasnyskih@thewrightcenter.org or 570.209.3275, or Seitzinger at seitzingerk@thewrightcenter.org.

For more information about The Wright Center, go to TheWrightCenter.org or call 570-230-0019.

Linda Thomas-Hemak, M.D., FAAP, FACP, president and chief executive officer of The Wright Centers for Community Health and Graduate Medical Education, recently participated with a select group of national primary care experts in a conversation with the head of the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).

Participants included Dr. Robert Phillips, founding executive director of the Center for Professionalism and Value in Health Care of the American Board of Family Medicine Foundation; Dr. Tumaini Rucker Coker, chief of the Division of General Pediatrics and professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine and Seattle Children’s Hospital; Dr. Frederick Chen, chief health and science officer at the American Medical Association, and Danielle Potter, family medicine nurse practitioner at El Rio Health in Tucson, Arizona.

“I was privileged to lend my voice to this important conversation on behalf of our dedicated Wright Center care teams as well as our patients, many of whom encounter barriers to care because of longstanding, systemic issues that can best be addressed at the national level,” said Dr. Thomas-Hemak. “It’s extremely humbling to be asked to be a part of this event with thought leaders from throughout the U.S. who have a vision for a health system that consistently delivers affordable, high-quality care and is accessible by all.”

A first-generation physician and native of Northeast Pennsylvania, Dr. Thomas-Hemak completed Harvard Massachusetts General Hospital’s combined Internal Medicine and Pediatrics Residency. Today, she is quadruple board-certified in internal medicine, pediatrics, addiction medicine, and obesity medicine. She currently serves as a member of HRSA’s Council on Graduate Medical Education, governor-elect of the American College of Physicians’ Pennsylvania Chapter, Eastern Region, and board chair of the Northeast Pennsylvania Area Health Education Center.

The Wright Center for Community Health, which in 2019 became a HRSA-designated Federally Qualified Health Center Look-Alike, operates a network of nine primary care practices in Lackawanna, Luzerne, and Wayne counties. The practices provide safety-net, comprehensive primary and preventive health services that cover the lifespan from pediatrics to geriatrics. A special emphasis is placed on medically underserved populations, and no patient is turned away due to an inability to pay.

The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education trains about 250 residents and fellows annually along with more than 250 interprofessional learners from affiliated academic institutions. It is the nation’s largest HRSA-funded Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education Safety-Net Consortium.

Together, the complementary parts of The Wright Center nonprofit enterprise work to fulfill its mission to improve the health and welfare of communities through inclusive and responsive health services and the sustainable renewal of an inspired, competent workforce that is privileged to serve.