Prisma Health and UofSC School of Medicine welcome incoming class of resident physicians

A high percentage of program graduates remain in the state to provide advanced specialty care for South Carolinians

GREENVILLE, S.C.—Prisma Health and the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Columbia and School of Medicine Greenville faculty and staff welcome the new class of first-year resident physicians after receiving the long-awaited results of Match Day 2021.

On Friday, March 19, 177 medical students learned they matched with Prisma Health to begin their residency training this summer at one of the Midlands or Upstate programs. The group will include 85 in Prisma Health’s Midlands region and 92 in the Upstate region. Of this class, 48 are local graduates from Prisma Health’s affiliate medical schools, the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Columbia and the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville.

Match Day is an important day for graduating medical students and is a celebration for participating medical schools, medical residency programs and teaching hospitals. The Main Match occurs annually on the third Friday in March at each of the 155 medical schools, 36 osteopathic medical schools and 400 participating academic health care systems and sites that sponsor medical residency education in United States, locations where the results of the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) are announced. The 2021 Match was the largest in NRMP history with 42,508 applicants submitted program choices for 38,106 positions.

Prisma Health currently has 52 residency and fellowship training programs across both regions. Each candidate accepted for medical residency has earned a degree from an accredited medical institution and has the title of Doctor of Medicine or Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine. They will join Prisma Health under the supervision of highly trained attending physicians to complete their graduate medical education and solidify their future careers in medicine.

“It was a unique year for all of us in healthcare, and residency recruitment was no exception,” says David Cull, MD, Vice President of Academics and Clinical Integration, and Executive Designated Institutional Officer of Prisma Health. “We are so proud to have, once again, filled all of our residency and fellowship positions posted in last week’s Match Day celebration. Our success in recruiting the best and brightest to our programs is a testament to the high-quality training experience these residents will receive once they arrive.”

Cull continues, “High-caliber medical students from across the country are increasingly recognizing the advantages of training at our unique academic health system and the opportunities it will afford our incoming medical professionals. Prisma Health is an integrated healthcare delivery system that partners with three distinguished academic institutions. Our footprint spans two medical schools, a nursing school, a pharmacy school, and multiple advanced practice provider training programs through our academic affiliates: University of South Carolina, Clemson University and Furman University.”

Earlier this academic year, six doctors of dental medicine and 38 fellow physicians in the Midlands and the Upstate subspecialty postgraduate programs also were welcomed prior to the Main Match, for a total of 227 physicians training in 33 specialty areas. The number of advanced training opportunities continues to grow. In the Upstate, three new Internal Medicine fellowships opened this year in the specialty areas of Gastroenterology, Infectious Disease and Pulmonary Critical Care. Gastroenterology fellowship will be a three-year program accepting two fellows this year. Infectious Diseases will be a two-year program and accepted one fellow this year. Pulmonary Critical Care will be a three-year program and accepted two fellows this year.

Prisma Health residents and fellows are not just learners, but also essential, front-line team members committed to improving the health status of South Carolina. They will be given the opportunity to train at the largest healthcare organization in the state that reaches 1.2 million patients on an annual basis, across 18 acute and specialty hospital campuses and over 330 practice sites. Roughly 70% of Prisma Health’s post graduate residents stay in South Carolina to practice medicine.