Welcome to Internal Medicine at Memorial Health in Savannah, Georgia!
Our facility has served the community of Savannah and surrounding area since 1955. We are a 711- bed hospital and a regional referral center for stroke, cardiovascular care, cancer care, trauma, pediatrics, and high-risk obstetrics as well as the only level 1 trauma center in the region. A residency spent at Memorial will be an immersion in pathology and clinical experience that parallels any large university.
If you choose to train with us you will learn how to function in a busy clinic environment, how to stabilize a patient in transfer to the ICU, and everything in between. We believe that autonomy and purpose are the best vaccine against burnout and strive to create a learning environment that allows our trainees to gain this autonomy in a safe, informed manner. With these values, we help guide our residents into a career they can enjoy and in which they find meaning.
We serve as the Savannah campus of Mercer University School of Medicine. Our close relationship with Mercer offers our residents the opportunity to develop and utilize their teaching skills and provides a student body willing and able to help in all facets of research and scholarly activity as well as community engagement. The Mercer students continually vote Internal Medicine the best clinical experience and our faculty and residents are regularly recognized as mentors and outstanding teachers.
We also boast an outstanding board pass rate history and understand how to coach for the board exams as well as for patient care. Our rigorous academic program ensures no resident need cram for the boards in their last year and allows the board review to be just that: a review.
However, I believe that what truly sets us apart is our culture. We understand that meaning and purpose are what ultimately inspire people to do difficult things. And residency, no matter how you slice it, is difficult. In order to make the difference we all so sincerely wish to make, we must develop tools of resiliency, learn to be comfortable in our discomfort, and cultivate compassion as we seek to become better doctors and better human beings. We must be open to change within our program and ourselves. We strive for honest conversation among residents and faculty so we can support one another in doing the work that we all hope will change our little corner of the world.
Mary C Downing, MD, FACP
Program Director