UCF Today (07/08/25) Sarubbi, Wendy

In Florida, a partnership between the UCF College of Medicine and HCA Florida Healthcare is working to educate physicians and reduce the physician shortage. The UCF-HCA Florida Healthcare GME Consortium has 44 accredited programs across the state. “As the need for physicians grows in the state of Florida, with an estimated 18,000 physician shortage projected over the next decade, we are helping to meet those needs,” says Stephen Cico, UCF's associate dean for graduate medical education and the UCF-HCA consortium's designated institutional officer. “We are focused on medical specialties that are or are going to be in the highest demand.” The program is adding six new graduate medical education programs starting July 1. These include physical medicine and rehabilitation and transitional year residencies at HCA Florida Lake Monroe Hospital in Sanford, a cardiology fellowship at UCA Florida Osceola Hospital, transitional year and psychiatry residencies at HCA Florida West Hospital, and a cardiology residency at HCA Florida Ocala Hospital. “These graduate medical education programs in our hospitals are instrumental to the success of our communities,” says Alan Keesee, chief executive officer at HCA Florida Ocala Hospital. “We are training up the next generation of physicians in local communities in an effort to retain their talent and meet the needs of our growing populations.” The UCF-HCA consortium has graduated more than 1,000 new physicians over the past 8 years, and about half are practicing in Florida. The program benefits by having multiples of specialty programs in high-need areas such as internal medicine, surgery, psychiatry, cardiology, and emergency medicine.

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