'Community bonding' sought as Schuylkill County prepares for medical residency program

Emily Graham, Republican & Herald, Pottsville, Pa.
·3 min read

Apr. 28—POTTSVILLE — Lehigh Valley Hospital-Schuylkill is working toward improving medical care in the county through the development of its Family Medicine Rural Residency program.

The program, which will welcome its first four students in June 2022, was recently accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.

In 2019, LVH-Schuylkill received a Rural Residency Planning and Development Program grant from the federal Health Resources and Services Administration.

"We are all very excited about bringing this to Schuylkill County," said Mackenzie Mady, D.O. at LVPG Family Medicine Schuylkill Medical Plaza and residency program director. "It's going to be a great way to give back to the community."

Mady said that since receiving the grant, they have been gathering faculty, developing the curriculum and creating space for the program to operate.

Renovations are underway to convert the former surgery center in the Schuylkill Medical Plaza in Pottsville into a classroom, offices and procedure rooms. The building also houses LVPH Family Medicine and ExpressCARE.

The faculty will include Ivor Lewis, M.D., LVPG Family Medicine Frackville; Marc Bonin, D.O., medical director of the LVH-Schuylkill emergency department; Robert Thurick, M.D., and Manish Mishra, M.D., Integrated Medical Group adult hospitalists at LVH-Schuylkill; Angela Zawisza, D.O., pediatric hospitalist at LVH-Schuylkill; and Stephen Evans, D.O., LVPG Sports Medicine and Family Medicine.

Kim Infante, program coordinator, said they have also been hosting meetings over the past year with organizations, nonprofits and professionals in the community to gain input and to plan for the residents to have an immersive experience in the county.

"We not only want our residents to serve the community, but we hope the community embraces the residents," Infante said. "We want to retain some of the residents and allow them to build a life here."

Lewis said the Rural Residency grant aims to help develop programs in areas that need them, and the support from the community will make the program even more attractive to students.

"The purpose of the federal grant is to attract residents to rural locations that they may not have considered," Lewis said. "That community bonding will be the ultimate reason for success in the program."

In addition, Mady said the support of the community will allow the program to become self-sustaining beyond the grant.

Lewis said they also hope to bring in students originally from Schuylkill County and encourage them to stay and practice locally. As part of the faculty, Lewis said he hopes to benefit not only the students, but the county, as well.

"We want to provide vision and leadership, which we've developed throughout our careers, to be an all-encompassing program and to raise the level of health care and hope for the county," he said.

Mady said the program will offer residents a diverse skillset, ranging in care from inpatient to outpatient, infant to geriatric, maternity and emergency, which they hope will "change the culture of how Schuylkill County views family medicine."

The faculty members have a wide range of professional backgrounds, Mady said, which will provide robust training and opportunities for the residents to work in different parts of the county.

"Schuylkill County is much bigger than Pottsville," Mady said. "We want to serve the whole county and expand into those more remote areas."

Infante said the residency program will show people in the county what kind of care they can expect for themselves and their families, now and in the future.

"One of our goals, in thinking about the entire family, is to say what does this county have to offer you to help you live and grow here and improve quality of life overall," Infante said.