UnityPoint Health – Des Moines Emergency Medicine Residency Program Earns Accreditation

UnityPoint Health – Des Moines is pleased to announce their new Emergency Medicine Residency Program has earned full accreditation from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). The Iowa Methodist Medical Center Emergency Medicine Residency Program will welcome its first class of six residents into its three-year training program in July 2024.

“UnityPoint Health – Des Moines has a storied history of residency education, dating as far back to the 1940s. The emergency medicine residency program will join seven other residency programs,” says Dr. William Yost, Chief Academic Officer for UnityPoint Health – Des Moines. “We look forward to building on our tradition of high-quality education to prepare ER physicians for the future.”

The Emergency Medicine Residency Program meets all required components of the ACGME. This three-year program will admit six residents per year and rotations will include clinical education and experience in Central Iowa’s only Level 1 Adult Trauma Center and tertiary referral center, Iowa Methodist Medical Center, and Iowa’s only Level 2 Pediatric Trauma Center, Blank Children’s Hospital where core rotations will be in the adult ED, pediatric ED, ICU, Level 1 trauma surgery service, and others.

“By being a part of an established residency program, our residents will have the opportunity to build camaraderie with other residents, but at the same time not competing for procedures or patient encounters,” says Nash Whitaker, MD, MSEd, MBA, Emergency Medicine Residency Program Director.

Applications for the Emergency Medicine Residency Program will open in September 2023 and the program will begin in July 2024. This will be Iowa’s second Emergency Medicine Residency Program and will train residents to become Emergency Department Physicians to practice in a wide array of clinical settings from major tertiary referral trauma center to a rural hospital and everything in between.

“We have spent years establishing, a culture and preparing a curriculum designed to produced well-rounded leaders that can excel in any environment or fellowship upon graduation,” says Whitaker. “We are excited for this new program to provide new opportunities for residents and extend that to our patient care.”