A new internal medicine residency program at Northern Westchester Hospital
Northwell Health has been named one of the Best Workplaces in New York 2024 by Fortune magazine for its equality across employment sectors, among other features. Now one of its key facilities, Northern Westchester Hospital (NWH) in Mount Kisco, seeks to enhance its delivery of advanced care for patients and the community with its new internal medicine residency program.
In its first year, the new residency program has enrolled 16 residents from around the country, divided equally between preliminary and categorical trainees. Preliminary residents will complete a one-year term before specializing in fields like ophthalmology, dermatology, radiology, radiation oncology or physical medicine and rehabilitation. The initial year provides a foundational understanding of general medicine before moving on to a specialization.
Categorical residents will spend three years at the hospital preparing for careers in primary care or hospital medicine, or they may go on to pursue fellowships in internal medicine subspecialties such as pulmonology, cardiology and gastroenterology.
“We are excited to introduce the hospital’s inaugural internal medicine residency program, a significant step forward in our growth as a leading medical institution,” said Sherri Sandel, DO, FACP, medical director at NWH. “This initiative strengthens our commitment to providing cutting-edge, evidence-based care to our community for generations to come.”
The program is led by Gary Stallings II, M.D., MPH, FACP, who in addition to being internal medicine residency program director serves as medical education director at NWH. Stallings has dedicated his career to medical education – previously serving at New York Medical College and Westchester Medical Center, both in Valhalla – where he held multiple leadership roles and earned more than 35 teaching awards. He is recognized both regionally and nationally for his contributions to medical education.
The hospital has created a new dedicated space for him and his team to conduct resident training. It includes four fully equipped on-call rooms, two bathrooms, a nourishment station/kitchenette, an office space with lockers, eight workstations, a television for teleconferences and educational sessions, a training room for multimodal teaching and 20 handheld Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS) devices.
The program will also include training at NWH’s medical practice at Chappaqua Crossing, a new 3,500-square-foot primary care facility with six patient care rooms, a lab and a large teaching area. Under the supervision of attending physicians, residents will tend to patients who receive care at NWH, as well as uninsured and underinsured individuals from the surrounding community.
Throughout the next several years, the program will grow from the initial 16 residents to a full class of 32 residents. In addition to internal medicine, the hospital plans to expand its training programs to include surgery, obstetrics and gynecology and psychiatry, among other specialties.
Northern Westchester Hospital’s residency program joins Northwell Health’s Graduate Medical Education (GME) program, which includes six other internal medicine programs and 200-plus training programs. According to the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), Northwell is the third largest GME institution in the country with slightly more than 2,000 trainees annually.
“Over the past few years, we’ve built a curriculum and program that I’m thrilled to lead at Northern Westchester Hospital,” Stallings said. “I’ve received amazing support from Northwell and my colleagues here at NWH, and I look forward to helping these young doctors grow and shape the foundation of their careers to be excellent clinicians and leaders in the medical profession.”