Program Strengths

Below are the Top 20 Program Strengths as reported by the residents and Med-Peds faculty. These are listed in no particular order.

1. Large Med-Peds Community – We have an impressive Med-Peds community ranging from Med-Peds trained subspecialists (Adult Congenital Cardiology, Rheumatology, Endocrinology, and Primary Care Sports Medicine), Med-Peds primary care physicians, and Med-Peds hospitalists. There are over 40 Med-Peds physicians in the community! Around 70% of these local Med-Peds physicians are Prisma Health Med-Peds residency graduates! Our Med-Peds community is also involved in resident training and mentorship.
2. Resident-centered Training – Prisma Health Med-Peds provides excellent hands-on training with plenty of resident autonomy! We have an open adult ICU allowing for ICU exposure early during training. We have a 3:1 resident-to-attending ratio in the PICU, which allows for direct, hands-on teaching. Your residency training experiences will not be overshadowed by numerous fellows or advanced care practitioners.
3. Med-Peds Leadership – Med-Peds physicians hold leadership positions throughout Prisma Health. Our program director, Dr. Sarah Hinton, is also chair of the Prisma Health Pediatric to Adult Transitions Committee. Dr. Russell Kolarik, our prior Med-Peds Residency Program Director, is the Associate Dean of Graduate Medical Education and the regional Designated Institutional Official for Prisma Health-Upstate. Dr. Kolarik is also a past president of the Med-Peds Program Directors Association. Dr. Meredith Eicken, a former Med-Peds Associate Program Director, now serves as the Internal Medicine Residency Program Director. Dr. Jeff Gerac, a graduate of our program and Med-Peds hospitalist, also serves as our Chief Medical Information Officer. Additionally, Med-Peds faculty serve as medical directors, division leaders, and clerkship and rotation directors throughout our health system.
4. Dedicated Med-Peds Program Administrator – Our Med-Peds Program Administrator, Megan Houston, helps to make sure our program seamlessly operates alongside our categorical residency programs. Her unique skillset is a perfect fit for our program. She has a background in education, earning a Master’s degree in Math and Science, and dedicating years to teaching. She also spent ten years with the Bradshaw Institute for Community Child Health & Advocacy, working closely with Dr. Kerry Sease, a former Prisma Health Pediatrics Residency Program Director. Additionally, her experience as a program administrator for the Pediatric residency and the Developmental-Behavioral Pediatric Fellowship gives her an excellent education and advocacy-framed perspective that will further support and improve our Med-Peds Program.
5. University of South Caroline School of Medicine – Greenville – The University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville has been a tremendous addition to our academic health center. Our medical students are very bright, enthusiastic, and bring a well-developed sense of clinical medicine as a result of their unique curriculum. Our relationship with the UofSC School of Medicine Greenville provides many opportunities for our residents to teach medical students in various settings and fosters an even stronger academic environment for our already exceptional clinical and teaching programs. The UofSC School of Medicine Greenville also has a very active Med-Peds Student Interest Group that meets quarterly with Med-Peds residents and faculty.
6. Fellowship Opportunities – Our residency is an excellent training ground for residents interested in fellowship training, given our moderate program size, resident-centric training, our growing academic center affiliated with the UofSC School of Medicine Greenville, and early subspecialist mentorship. Our fellowship match rate is excellent, and research opportunities are plentiful! Our program boasts numerous approachable, collaborative Med-Peds, Pediatric, and Internal Medicine subspecialists interested in resident mentorship and scholarship. We have three new, small Internal Medicine fellowships that started in 2021 – Gastroenterology, Pulmonary/Critical Care, and Infectious Disease. Our pediatric department features a Development-Behavioral Pediatrics Fellowship.
7. Med-Peds Hospitalist Program and Rotation – We have a dedicated Med-Peds Hospitalist program at Greer Memorial Hospital, an 82-bed hospital entirely run by Med-Peds–trained hospitalists. Residents on this rotation provide comprehensive inpatient care, including procedures, for a 12-bed intensive care unit, progressive ICU, medicine-surgical floor, pediatrics unit, and level 2 newborn nursery.
8. Med-Peds Ambulatory Rotation and Local Practices – We have created a Med-Peds Ambulatory Rotation for our PGY-1 residents that allows them to meet and work with Med-Peds practitioners in various settings in the Upstate community. This rotation enables our residents to experience the care of adults and children together in a variety of acute, primary, and specialty care settings, to learn about effective transition of care from pediatric to adult settings, and to meet potential mentors and role models in Med-Peds. Notably, 50% of our graduates in the last ten years have pursued primary care. In addition, month-long electives at any of these practices are available for our upper-level residents interested in primary care Med-Peds.
9. Adolescent Medicine Division and Rotation – Dr. Michael Guyton-Nunley, a graduate of our Med-Peds residency, is the Medical Director of the Division of Adolescent Medicine and Adolescent Medicine Course Director. He completed his Adolescent Medicine fellowship at the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center. He offers primary care and specialty care to adolescents and young adults, including reproductive health, sexual health, eating disorder management, and LGBTQ health. Dr. Sarah Hinton, our residency program director, works closely with Dr. Guyton-Nunley and has a clinical interest in adolescent and LGBTQ health.
10. Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Initiatives – Diversity equity and inclusion are extremely important for us, much more than academic buzzwords. We strive to provide an inclusive residency training program to a diverse group of residents, empowering them to deliver exceptional, culturally compassionate, and nuanced patient care. Additionally, Greenville is a diverse and vibrant city. See more below regarding our diverse patient population and pathology. Please see our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion page to review our initiatives and action items.
11. Individualized Board Review Curriculum and Pass Rates – Both the Internal Medicine and Pediatric categorical programs boast longitudinal board review curricula. Additionally, our associate program director, Dr. Senthuran Ravindran, creates an Individualized Board Preparation plan for each resident. He meets with the third and fourth-year residents individually to discuss their in-training exam trends, highlight areas for improvement, and identify their barriers to exam preparation. He also spearheads the Med-Peds Board Review lecture series and coordinates the individualized Board Review elective for third and fourth-year residents. Our American Board of Pediatrics first time exam pass rate from 2015-2021 is 96% (27/28), and our American Board of Internal Medicine first time exam pass rate from 2015-2021 is 96% (23/24).
12. Global Health Experiences – Our program and health system support and encourage interested residents to pursue international health opportunities. Many of our Med-Peds residents are interested in global health and have initiated travel to Brazil, Guatemala, Haiti, Kenya, and many other locations. Please see the Global Health page to learn more.
13. Pediatric to Adult Care Transition – Our program is passionate about supporting pediatric to adult care transition. Dr. Sarah Hinton, our Program Director, is the director of the Prisma Health Pediatric to Adult Transitions Committee, which is developing systems to facilitate the safe, timely, and effective transition of adolescent patients from pediatric to adult care settings across our health system. In Spring 2015, we also hosted a successful regional transitional conference, “Ready, Set, Transition – Bridging Pediatric to Adult Care in Chronic Medical Illness,” sponsored by the National Med-Peds Residency Association, South Carolina Developmental Disabilities Council, Carolina Center for Counseling and Behavioral Interventions, South Carolina Solutions and South Carolina Health Connections. Our Med-Peds residents are involved in quality improvement projects that include transitions of care in various clinical settings. Please see our Transitional Care page to learn more.
14. Commitment to Resident and Faculty Wellness – We pride ourselves on encouraging and modeling self-care and championing wellness. We encourage utilization of our Employee Assistance Program, in addition to utilizing the LifeWorks app, which is available to all employees and their family members. Residents have access to an affordable gym membership. We monitor our residents for signs of burnout or depression. We ask for program feedback often and incorporate potential changes as soon as possible. Additionally, we have a mentorships structure, regular check-in social events, and “switch parties” that punctuate transitions from the Internal Medicine and Pediatric sides and vice versa.
15. Diverse Patient Populations and Pathology – Our health system has a large catchment area, allowing us to care for a diverse patient population and encounter a wide range of common and uncommon pathology. We care for patients with complex genetic conditions who follow locally at the Greenwood Genetics Center, adults with congenital cardiology pathology, Spanish-speaking Latinx and immigrant populations, Black and African American patients, and transgender and gender-diverse youth. Notably, our residents will care for under-resourced populations in both Internal Medicine and Pediatric clinics. Our resident clinics are staffed with social workers, dieticians, lactation consultants, nurse case managers, and interpreters to provide comprehensive and equitable care. Our pediatric teaching clinic is the largest Medicaid provider for children in the state of South Carolina, and 40% of our pediatric patients identify as Hispanic.
16. Med-Peds Conferences Series, Journal Club, and Workshops – Our Med-Peds weekly noon conferences and journal clubs allow our residents and faculty to review medical topics specific to Med-Peds physicians, such as transitional care, pediatric and adolescent hypertension, or late effects of childhood cancer treatment, as well as diversity, inclusion, and equity, wellness, and work/life integration. We host quarterly journal clubs in a unique format, with participants preparing a journal article discussion related to landmark studies and guidelines. This allows us to review up to 5 articles, in addition to the article accompanying the case. We also have twice-yearly Med-Peds workshops that enable us to explore topics in greater depth and engage in hands-on learning.
17. Moonlighting opportunities – Our residents have many excellent opportunities for additional paid clinical experiences at the North Greenville Long-Term Acute Care Hospital (LTACH), Greer Memorial Hospital, outpatient MRI physician coverage, and Newborn Nursery (weekend coverage). At the LTACH, residents take care of patients who require an extended hospital stay for various conditions, such as post-stroke care, ventilator management, wound care, and long-term antibiotics. PGY2-PGY4 residents in good standing can begin moonlighting during the second year upon approval and after completing their Adult Critical Care rotation and obtaining their permanent South Carolina medical license.
18. Greenville Healthcare Simulation Center – At the University of South Carolina School of Medicine at Greenville, the Greenville Health Care Simulation Center is among the most sophisticated simulation-based learning and research centers in the United States, with “11,500 square feet of purpose-built space equipped with the latest simulation, multi-media and information technology.” There are 11 training rooms with audio-visual recording capabilities and adult, child, and infant simulators. The Med-Peds residents utilize the center frequently during Internal Medicine and Pediatric procedure workshops, Internal Medicine and Pediatric code strategies sessions practicing ACLS/BLS, PALS and NRP skills, and Point-of-Care Ultrasound Training. We have even utilized the Sim Center and standardized patients to practice being an Upstander in the clinical learning environment.
19. Research and Scholarship Opportunities – These scholarship opportunities abound with approachable faculty and subspecialists. Each of our Med-Peds residents must make a case presentation or present original research at the South Carolina – American College of Physicians (Internal Medicine) meeting during their third year of residency. Winners of the regional ACP presentation competition present at the National ACP meeting as well. In addition, our residents are also asked to complete quality improvement projects for Pediatrics during their four years that are presented to the South Carolina – American Academy of Pediatrics meeting in July or August of the fourth year. For residents interested in additional scholarship, ample opportunities and support that can be found from our academic collaboration with the University of South Carolina, Clemson University, and Furman University.
20. City of Greenville – In addition to all the tremendous resources available at the hospital for our Med-Peds residents, we are very fortunate to be a part of a growing, vibrant community. Greenville, SC has consistently been rated one of the fastest-growing and most desirable places to live in America. Greenville has a beautiful downtown with a magnificent waterfall and park, a variety of award-winning restaurants, as well as theater and the arts. It is a short drive from Greenville to the beach in Charleston, SC, or the mountains in Asheville, NC. Greenville is also roughly halfway between Charlotte, NC, and Atlanta, GA. Almost everyone who comes to Upstate South Carolina is impressed by what they see here. We would love for you to visit us!