Residency and Fellowship Programs

I am thrilled to welcome you to the home page for Graduate Medical Education for Ocean Medical Center. Medical education, both on the undergraduate and graduate level, is one of our highest priorities, and we strive to exceed the expectations of our students and trainees through innovation and a robust environment supporting inquiry. We are affiliated with Hackensack Meridian Health School of Medicine at Seton Hall University, our newly opened medical school that welcomed its first class in July 2018. At Ocean, we also have an affiliation with the Rowan School of Osteopathic Medicine, where we serve as a regional campus for third year students. You will interact with trainees from other disciplines, providing the opportunity for interdisciplinary education.

Hackensack Meridian Health has as one its core missions to be a High Reliability Organization (HRO), defined as providing consistent excellence in quality and safety for every patient, every time. HRO is a journey, not a destination. As such, our residents are key to achieving success. All residents receive training in Performance Improvement and Quality Improvement; all will spend time on teams working on an existing QI/PI project, or developing one of their own.

Our faculty – a mix of employed full-time clinicians as well as volunteer medical and dental staff members – is recognized for their clinical skills and individualized attention to learners. Side by side with our faculty and through hands-on clinical experiences, simulation exercises, didactic sessions, workshops and online modules, our residents become skilled in caring for patients with a broad spectrum of disorders in inpatient and outpatient settings.

While training at our programs we expect residents to provide evidenced-based care decisions. To support them in achieving this goal, Hackensack Meridian Health has several tools to assist in this effort:

• An Institute for Evidenced-Based Care, which regularly updates care management guidelines and makes them available when residents’ log in to the computer system. We also invest in UpToDate, the leading point of care database. UptoDate is free of charge to residents, and is available on all devices.
• EPIC EMR throughout the Hackensack Meridian Health network (role out 2018-2020), which will residents to be part of multidisciplinary work groups specializing in medical informatics and learning on the state-of-the-art EMR system in the United States.

In support of research, we have over 30 dedicated research staff and five full-time biostatisticians available for residents’ research projects. Our residents are expected to engage in a mentored research project during their training and projects. Posters and oral presentations are a major part of our annual Research Day program every June.

Across the network our programs meet or exceed state and national averages for Board pass rates, and have a remarkable track record for success in fellowship matches. We also have an increasing number of employment opportunities in primary care and specialty areas given the growth of our health system.

Finally, we have a strong culture and shared beliefs: Creative, Courageous, Compassionate, Collaborative. We embrace the importance of wellness of our residents, and have hospital-based and network initiatives and programs in place to achieve work-life balance to maximize your learning and ability to deliver excellent patient care.

This is an exciting time to be starting residency training. I hope that you will consider joining us.

Sincerely,

David S. Kountz, MD, MBA, FACP
Vice President, Academic Affairs and DIO
Co-Chief Academic Officer, Hackensack Meridian Health
Professor of Medicine and Associate Dean for Diversity and Equity
Hackensack Meridian Health School of Medicine at Seton Hall University