Trio of Resident Physicians to Continue Careers with Adena Health
Kayla Hazlett, DO, has long been enthusiastic about the prospect of working in the type of rural setting she has always called home.
The daughter of a physician’s assistant who spent her formative years living in Hillsboro, Washington Court House, and London, Ohio, she was excited to get the opportunity to do her three-year family medicine residency with Adena Health. It offered the chance to work in a familiar type of community practicing the brand of rural medicine she enjoys.
The experience went so well that, upon her recent graduation from the health system’s resident physician education program, she became one of three members of the graduating class to join the permanent staff at Adena Health.
“The decision to stay was an easy one when you get to work with the people who have supported you and helped mold you into the doctor you are today,” she said.
Dr. Hazlett is joining the primary care team at Chillicothe Family Physicians. Her husband, Kyle Hazlett, DO, is the second of the 12-member 2023 residency graduation class committed to work with Adena Health, taking a position as a hospitalist with Apogee Physicians at Adena Regional Medical Center. The third graduate continuing a career with the health system is Cara Swanson, DO, who will provide outpatient primary care services for Adena Internal Medicine.
Resident physicians are licensed doctors who have graduated medical school and have chosen to advance their training in residency within the specialty they seek. Adena’s 2023 graduates were celebrated during a recent ceremony and included four doctors in family medicine, five in internal medicine, and three in psychiatry.
John DesMarais, MD, the designated institutional official for the GME program and family medicine residency program director, said it is exciting to have three among the residency class choose to stay and practice locally.
Members of this year’s graduating class came from as far away as Florida, Texas, Wisconsin, and the nation of Armenia to further their training at Adena Health.
Adena Health President and CEO Jeff Graham spoke to the importance of the program in developing the next generation of physicians and applauded the resiliency of members of the current class, who began their residencies with the health system in 2020 during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“At Adena, education is a pillar of who we are and what our organization stands on,” Graham said. “This is the 11th year of our GME program that started with a vision in 2012 with our first class of six physicians. This group entered training at a time when the world was turning upside down, and they probably were exposed to things they didn’t think they’d ever see or even imagine as a result.”
The past two residency classes have produced eight physicians who committed to working with Adena Health, joining seven others from previous classes.
The growth and reputation of Adena Health’s graduate medical education program have not gone unnoticed. The 15 open spots in the incoming residency class were all filled during the first of three potential recruiting stages designed to match physicians with their top choices for their residency -- the first time in the 11-year history of Adena’s program in which that has happened.
“It’s almost unbelievable to get every one of our residents matched during phase one,” Dr. DesMarais said. “That just goes to show that our reputation is on point.”
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