Dive Brief:
- The Carolinas HealthCare System is planning to ramp up mental healthcare services through the creation of an accredited, four-year psychiatry residency program at the Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.
- Carolinas HealthCare is using a $3 million gift from the Leon Levine Foundation to help fund the project and will name the program the Leon Levine Psychiatry Residency Program.
- Although the initiative will start small, it will eventually grow to include 12 students by the end of its fourth year.
Dive Insight:
This effort is part of a push by Carolinas HealthCare to bolster its behavorial health department for Charlotte residents.
"This new initiative presents us with an exciting opportunity to comprehensively educate and train talented young psychiatrists for our expanding behavioral health programs," said Carolinas CEO Michael Tarwater in a statement.
Indeed, Carolinas has focused on psychatric programs in recent years. The provider network launched a $36 million inpatient facility with 66 beds, the Mindy Ellen Behavioral Health Center, in Davidson, North Carolina in 2014.
Industry observers know that there's a burgeoning residency crisis in the medical profession, with scarcely available residency spots risking a bottle neck that could exacerbate America's primary care doctor shortage. But this problem is particularly prevalent in the behavioral health profession, and a dearth of trained psychiatrists remains a major barrier to patients' access to these types of services.