Hendersonville Family Medicine Residency
You are at an exciting time in your professional journey. The next three years will shape you professionally and personally for a lifelong career of service, and we’re glad that you found your way here. While medicine has made amazing strides in the past 100 years, the systems we have do not deliver equally for all. Many changes are needed, but we clearly need physician leaders with competence and compassion for our communities.
In Hendersonville, we think that ALL should have high quality and affordable healthcare, and as a Teaching Health Center (THC), we get to practice this kind of real family medicine. Being a THC means that our residency is combined with a Blue Ridge Health, a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) that serves as our clinical sponsor. We see all patients, regardless of ability to pay. In this partnership, our residents and our community both win.
Rural medicine is full of challenges: disproportionate mortality rates, higher rates of addiction, and mental illness. It is also an “opportunity desert” that has depressed access to housing, education, and employment. As a community-based program, we see these challenges as opportunities during every patient encounter as well as in larger community health projects. From day one in our program, you will engage in the issues and learn how to be a leader for change in your community.
Our curriculum is designed around giving you professional value. The flexibility to “choose your own adventure” is more than a slogan—it embodies the heart of how we want to form the next generation of Family Physicians. In your intern year, you will start shaping the curriculum that serves you for a lifetime of practice. You will train in full-scope family medicine that is robust and unopposed, and includes dedicated procedure time, high volume longitudinal obstetrics, and clinical exposure that will equip you for your future.
In residency, you will be stretched, discover new strengths, and you will be a new person by the end. In Hendersonville, we want you to find harmony in the professional and personal. We live in a beautiful part of the country and have built a supportive environment around personal wellness that values you as a colleague from day one. Our faculty and residents model balance, resilience, and long-term joy in a demanding profession.
It’s an honor that you are considering training with us, and we’re excited to meet you. Come and explore the education we offer, the values we share, and how we can help you develop into the physician leader of the future. Learn more about our program in this brochure.
Sincerely,
Daniel E. Yoder, MD
Tracie Hazelett
HFMresidency@brchs.com
Cynthia Ridler HFMresidency@brchs.com
MAHEC offers a variety of student rotations in Family Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology, General Surgery, Rural Medicine, and Psychiatry for both in-state and out-of-state students interested in our residency programs. Learn more about our 4th year medical student rotations
MAHEC is committed to inspiring and equipping the next generation of healthcare professionals and expanding access to care for all. Our vision is to create a healthier community in Western North Carolina and beyond.
There are so many great family medicine programs, but ultimately students need to find the place where they feel the right fit. Our values support us as a bedrock of who we are as a program, and we want to meet people that share in these values.
Community-CenteredHospital, schools, health campaigns, migrant farmworker camps, educational programs... We are involved and we lead. |
Continuous Full-Spectrum CareThroughout residency, we deliver babies, care for children, manage critical care patients, and provide acute care. We care for all, all the time. |
Leadership and AdvocacyTo make change, you have to lead change. Our residents are our colleagues and we provide the ability, tools, and avenues for our residents. Our residents make a difference from day one. |
At-Risk PopulationsOur patient population is more than 85% uninsured or Medicaid insured. We provide outreach services to the migrant farmworker population, sit on the board of the free clinic, provide care at the health department, and manage a clinic to support individuals experiencing homelessness. We give access to care to everyone. |
DynamicBeing a smaller program allows us to push the standards of medical education to provide customized education at the highest quality. We constantly evaluate our program and our residents. We make sure every physician leaves having the heart, skills, and knowledge to bring lasting change to their community. |
On top of these values and the great people here, we have many unique features that we hope align with the vision for your future.
During their second and third years, residents work on a community project, which is often their main scholarly activity. They collaborate with local organizations to develop a project that has a lasting impact on their community.
Examples of prior projects:
Our program has been developing full-spectrum rural physicians for over two decades, and have been very successful in placing our graduates in Western North Carolina. As Hendersonville has grown, however, we have seen a rising challenge of continuing to develop rural physicians in a town that has become more vibrant and less rural. Through multiple sites affiliated with Blue Ridge Health, our residents establish themselves at rural clinics in multiple mountain towns outside Henderson County. In their second and third year, residents spend 1-2 days per month at these smaller clinics to develop their own patient panel and improve their skills in rural medicine.
Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is used in our hospital and continuity clinics with handheld Butterfly devices. Ultrasound is taught in formal courses as well as in didactics, typically 6-7 times per year. Residents are encouraged to use these skills daily in their continuity clinics but further hands-on training is incorporated into our procedural skills rotation. Furthermore, residents can choose to use elective time dedicated to additional POCUS training.
Despite the national reduction in scope of practice in family medicine, our program has remained committed to full-spectrum training. Our goal is to train a generation of physicians who are ready to practice anywhere in the world and tackle whatever community needs they encounter. We continue to work with our local health systems to expand the scope of practice of family doctors and to improve the health of Western North Carolina.
Our residents are a diverse group of learners with a diverse number of interests, and our curriculum can be individualized for residents based on their anticipated needs. With maximal elective time built into the curriculum and an away month in second and third year, our residents have the opportunity to shape their own experiences to match their interests. Some residents have spent this time to gain expertise in alternative medicine, medical Spanish, curriculum development, innovative practice models, surgical obstetrics, and much more. Our small size allows residents the flexibility to work on their interests and to mold a personalized curriculum around their goals.
Small is beautiful! Some would compare us to larger University programs and call us “unopposed” but we think a better definition is community-based. In Hendersonville, that means that when you call the pulmonologist, they know your name! We thrive as a residency because of an excellent group of community faculty that see you as a junior colleague and want to help you grow along the way.
Small communities like ours still have big problems. Here in Hendersonville, we have so many great resources and non-profits looking to make an impact on the community, and our residents are encouraged to make those connections and take on the problems that matter. Whether in the clinic, hospital, or community at large, you can lead that change.
With over 750+ family medicine programs, you’re bound to find the one that fits your personal and professional needs. For us, flexibility is a key element of how we fulfill our mission of “Training to Serve.” We think we have the Goldilocks of class size, but we also find that this gives us the flexibility to let a resident build a curriculum for their professional needs. If a resident wants a longitudinal curriculum in obstetrics, or psychiatry, or OMT, that excites us and we can help you take that desire and achieve your goals.
The clinic is the classroom in Hendersonville, but we don’t think your faculty is the teacher. Instead, your patients will be your greatest teachers, and your faculty the facilitators. Since this person in the exam room will be the most valuable part of your education, we have designed our curriculum to reflect that. Several years ago, we implemented the “patient first” approach in our clinics. This means improved continuity, improved patient satisfaction, and you, as a physician, know the people you care for.
Some programs will have you meeting new continuity patients even in your third year, but there really isn’t much time to build those relationships before you graduate. From day one in Hendersonville, you have your full panel, and each year have an equal number of office visits to build that connection and grow with your patients. As a result of the changes made years ago, our program is well-positioned to address new ACGME standards.
Our family practice service (FPS) is a full-spectrum service that cares for OB, pediatrics, and adult inpatient medicine. We care for the entire panel of Blue Ridge Health patients in multiple clinics across Western North Carolina. Residents spend three months during their first and second years on the FPS, and two months in a leadership role during their third year. Our longitudinal call structure ensures that residents continue to be confident and comfortable with inpatient medicine throughout their residency. As a result, many of our graduates have gone on to practice hospitalist medicine.
Our family practice service is the primary team for our intensive care patients. We do more than make social visits or watch as others care for our patients. Our residents are the first call when our patients require intubation, procedures, or resuscitation. In addition to gaining this experience during your family practice rotation, residents have a dedicated intensive care rotation at Pardee Hospital and have the opportunity for an elective month of pulmonary and critical care at Mission Hospital. A hallmark of our residency is that Pardee is large enough to have a busy ICU, but small enough that our residents retain primary responsibility to care for our patients there.
Pardee Hospital in Hendersonville is where residents will get the bulk of their delivery experience, and it is one of the few hospitals in Western North Carolina where family doctors are practicing operative obstetrics. Our residents graduate with between 60-120 deliveries, depending on their interest, and have gone on to become faculty and full-spectrum physicians across the country because of their comfort with obstetrics. Due to an underserved patient population without easy access to specialists, residents become comfortable with managing higher risk prenatal patients who would usually be managed by specialists in an urban environment or larger program.
During the first year, residents spend two months in inpatient pediatrics at Mission Hospital in Asheville and are taught by pediatric hospitalists, intensivists and sub-specialists. They admit pediatric patients from all over Western North Carolina and are the only inpatient pediatricians to admit, which allows for a wide range of cases. Residents become comfortable caring for newborns and coordinating care with specialists, as well as managing common and complex illnesses.
Residents also acquire ongoing inpatient pediatrics experience on the inpatient service in Hendersonville. Because of the thriving OB practice, many children are recruited by residents into clinic after participating in deliveries. Residents enjoy additional outpatient experiences at the local Health Department and in pediatric blocks during their first and third year.
Mental health is an area of great need in our community, and our residents see behavioral health as a vital component to family medicine. We have a dedicated LCSW faculty member who is responsible for the behavioral health education of the residents, which comes as both didactic education and co-managing patients in the clinic.
Residents also lead group visits for behavioral health issues. Rotations during second year in community medicine and behavioral health provide experiences in counseling and residents learn about available community resources. Additionally, physician wellness is a key part of our behavioral health curriculum and a major focus of our program in general.
For one month during intern year, residents train in the second busiest emergency room in Western North Carolina, where they focus on actively managing critically ill patients, as well as gain procedural experience. Residents will often perform additional procedures in the ER while on call for the inpatient service. Our residents also have an ER rotation in their second year dedicated to pediatric emergency medicine at Mission Hospital. During their third year, residents have the option of using elective time in the emergency room if they seek additional experiences. Family doctors in rural areas are expected to care for acutely ill patients in an emergency setting, and our residents are comfortable caring for our patients in this environment.
Our residents spend one month during intern year on a surgery rotation rotating with the surgical group from Pardee Hospital. During this month, their emphasis is on evaluation for surgical intervention, basic surgical skills, endoscopy, and post-surgical care. Residents also use this opportunity to become adept at intubations and procedural techniques that are useful during their longitudinal call. During third year, our residents have a dedicated Procedural Skills rotation where they will have an entire month dedicated to both outpatient and inpatient procedural skills.
One month during intern year is spent with local orthopedic and sports medicine practices. Residents learn outpatient management of orthopedic problems and participate in surgery. During the second year, residents have the option to complete an MSK/Sports Medicine elective and rotate through various family, sports medicine, and physical therapy clinics. Residents are encouraged to learn sports medicine procedures and techniques for use with their continuity patients and our program has a weekly sports medicine clinic that can supplement those efforts. Residents will also have the opportunity to be involved with local sports teams and events.
While residents primarily work in the FQHC setting, they also have dedicated time in the second and third year to explore multiple practice models. Curriculum focuses on personnel management, coding, billing, and patient flow & satisfaction. A one-month rotation during the third year focuses on skills in practice leadership. During this time, residents will also complete a practice improvement project and focus on their community impact project.
We are one of the few programs in the country where residents can take the opportunity to practice overseas during each year of their residency. Residents can travel to rural Honduras through Shoulder to Shoulder as early as intern year, and have one month of dedicated time during each of their subsequent years to travel and practice away from Hendersonville. Other recent experiences chosen by residents have included time in Ecuador as well as to a variety of Indian Health Services locations in the Western U.S. Additionally, we have dedicated time during didactics to address international and wilderness medicine topics.
Although we do not provide a specific curriculum to all residents, several of our residents have taken advantage of elective time to gain experience and credentialing in wilderness medicine. Residents participate in didactics as well as periodic workshops and outings. They are given the opportunity to teach lectures for a wilderness EMT course. The residency is within close proximity to Dupont State Forest, Pisgah National Forest, and multiple wilderness areas.
The scarcity of rural providers makes procedural skill training a focus of our program. Ultrasound is a major priority of our procedural training curriculum and we have added handheld point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) devices in the hospital and outpatient clinics. We also equip residents in more formal MAHEC training courses throughout the year. Our didactic curriculum includes simulation center trainings on difficult airways and intubations, central line placement, and further work on point-of-care ultrasound. Each resident’s curriculum can be tailored to match their anticipated needs, but every resident will graduate feeling comfortable with a broad range of procedural skills.
Residents have afternoon didactics weekly. These conferences cover a broad range of primary care topics including: patient management, behavioral medicine, Ob/Gyn, cardiology, neurology, pediatrics, community medicine, practice management, and more. Learning sessions are led with active teaching methods in mind. Regular monthly conferences within the residency include discussions of hospital cases, obstetrics cases, M&M, pediatrics/nrp cases, difficult outpatient cases, physician wellness, and resident meetings.
Our call schedule is one of the most important aspects of our program. During intern year, our residents spend two weeks on night float while rotating at Mission Hospital on inpatient pediatrics and one week during the away OB rotation in Greensboro. The primary goal of intern year is to prepare the resident for longitudinal call at Pardee Hospital, where the resident will be actively caring for critically ill patients. Additional intern call consists of weekend day call; approximately nine weekends per year, which includes the time on Family Practice Service. Second and third year residents are on call an average of 33 nights per year, which includes weekends. Plus, their regularly scheduled weekend day call when on FPS, four (PGY3s) to six (PGY2s) weekends per year. Residents practice as a full-scope hospitalist including ICU and obstetrics with faculty support. Our graduates feel prepared to continue practicing obstetrics and inpatient medicine because they had continuous full-scope training throughout their residencies.
| Family Practice Inpatient |
| Family Practice Inpatient |
| Family Practice Inpatient |
| Ob/Gyn |
| Practice Management / Community Medicine |
| AWAY: Ob/Gyn Inpatient (Greensboro) |
| PEDS Inpatient (Asheville) |
| PEDS Inpatient (Asheville) |
| MSK |
| PEDS Outpatient |
| ED |
| Surgery |
| Rural |
4 clinic half days per week*
4-5 patients per half day
| Family Practice Inpatient |
| Family Practice Inpatient |
| Family Practice Inpatient |
| Ob/Gyn |
| Practice Management / Community Medicine |
| Cardiology |
| Infectious Disease |
| ICU / Critical Care |
| MSK Sports Medicine |
| HOME: Elective |
| ED: PEDS (Asheville) |
| HOME: Elective |
| AWAY: Elective |
3-4 clinic half days per week*
7-8 patients per half day
| Family Practice Inpatient |
| Family Practice Inpatient |
| Nephrology / ENT |
| Dermatology / Ophthalmology |
| Practice Management / Community Medicine |
| Procedural Skills |
| Geriatrics |
| Neurology / Urology |
| HOME: Elective |
| PEDS Outpatient |
| HOME: Elective |
| HOME: Elective |
| AWAY: Elective |
2-3 clinic half days per week*
8-10 patients per half day
*1-2 half clinic days weekly on shaded blocks, none on AWAY blocks
Residents may choose to gain additional experience in any rotation they are exposed to during first, second, or third year (i.e. Ob/Gyn, ED, MSK Sports Medicine, Neurology, Cardiology, etc.)
Other electives include:
AWAY electives can be done domestically, to include Rural Rotations or Indian Health Services experiences in another part of the state or another part of the U.S. International experiences can also occur during AWAY electives, including Honduras (Shoulder to Shoulder program), Ecuador, or other locations of interest.
Blue Ridge Health - Justice Street is one of two main outpatient clinics of our Teaching Health Center (THC) where residents and faculty see patients regardless of ability to pay. Built in 1999, it is a 12,000 square foot facility with 24 patient rooms, two procedure rooms, a behavioral health meeting room, a teleconference room, and a precepting area. This clinic serves a wide breadth of patients with full-spectrum family medicine, nutritionist, and behavioral health services offered. There are also laboratory services and an on-site 340b pharmacy that offers significant discounts to our uninsured and underinsured patients. It is located across the street from Pardee Hospital, allowing easy access between clinic and the hospital.
Blue Ridge Health - Chimney Rock is the other main outpatient clinic of our THC. It is on the site where Blue Ridge Health was initially founded in 1963. At this location, residents and faculty see a similar patient demographic, but also have a higher volume of Hispanic and migrant populations. Here and at all sites, full interpreter services are present to give culturally competent care. At this facility, dental services, mammography, and radiology are offered in addition to the above services at Justice Street. Similarly, the on-site 340b pharmacy offers significant medication discounts to our patients. The clinic is a short 10-15 minute drive to the hospital.
Established in 1953, Pardee Hospital is a non-profit community hospital. Family Medicine is the only training program at the hospital, so residents have access to a wide range of medical cases and experiences. It is a busy 222 bed hospital that has received high marks in orthopedics and surgery by several national rankings. It also houses the second busiest ER in Western North Carolina, which has 34 ER rooms. Over 300 babies are delivered at Pardee Hospital each year. It has an ICU where family physicians have admitting privileges.
Mission Hospital is located 19.8 miles away from Pardee Hospital, making the rotations an easy commute for our residents. Mission Hospital is a part of the Mission Health System and the medical center that serves as the tertiary referral center for the entire Western North Carolina region and parts of TN, SC, WVA, VA and beyond. This comprehensive health system brings together the capabilities of its two founding hospitals, Mission and St. Joseph's. Together, they are licensed for 815 beds. The medical staff comprises approximately 600 physicians.
If you believe that you are a good match for our program, we would welcome your application. We will review all applications submitted through ERAS and will contact and schedule interviews for those who appear to be the best fit for our residency program.
Our interview days will be on Tuesdays and/or Thursdays and will be held weekly from late October through mid-December. Our interviews begin with a casual dinner party hosted at one of our resident's homes the night before, therefore candidates should be in town no later than 5:00 pm the day prior to their interview. Interviews with our program also include accommodations in a historic B&B in downtown Hendersonville, lunch on your interview day, time with faculty and residents, and tours of our clinical sites and hospital. We also offer a community tour for your spouse/partner, provided by one of our resident’s spouses, during your interview time.
If candidates wish to have a second look, those visits are arranged by appointment.
In compliance with AAMC recommendations, MAHEC Hendersonville Rural Family Medicine Residency suggests that applicants signal their most interested programs regardless of whether they are home or away rotations. This is the most fair and equitable process for all applicant types (MD, DO, and IMGs) and provides all programs that participate in receiving signals with the same information about interest level. This signaling information will be used in the process of choosing applicants to interview but not for rank list ordering.
The mission of the Hendersonville Family Medicine Residency Program is to train superior family physicians for community-oriented rural practice in Western North Carolina. We welcome well qualified candidates to apply to our program.
The Graduate Medical Education (GME) programs will select from among eligible applicants on the basis of residency program-related criteria such as their preparedness, ability, aptitude, academic credentials, communication skills, and personal qualities such as motivation and integrity.
An applicant must meet or exceed the following minimum qualification(s) to be eligible for selection and appointment to MAHEC’s GME residency programs:
MAHEC does not directly sponsor residents or fellows that need a J-1 Sponsorship VISA. Non-U.S. citizen applicants needing visa sponsorship must secure this directory from the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG). The ECFMG is authorized by the U.S. Department of State to sponsor foreign national physicians for the J-1 Exchange Visitor visa for the purpose of participating in U.S. programs of graduate medical education or training. ECFMG is designated by the U.S. Department of State as a BridgeUSA sponsor for J-1 exchange visitor physicians enrolled in accredited programs of graduate medical education or training, or advanced research programs (involving primarily observation, consultation, teaching, or research). Although many universities and research institutions in the United States are authorized to sponsor exchange visitors as research scholars, ECFMG is the sole sponsor of J-1 physicians in clinical training programs.
Questions regarding VISA Sponsorship should be directed to the GME office at 828-232-2946 or gme@mahec.net.
Orientation for first year residents occurs prior to the start of each academic year, so that new residents can begin their first rotation on July 1 with a basic understanding of their new educational environment.
In addition to a variety of activities designed to orient new residents to the hospital, Family Medicine Clinics, and MAHEC, social activities are organized to allow residents to get acquainted with each other, faculty, and staff.
Orientation will begin in mid-June. First-year residents will receive a stipend to be compensated for these two weeks of orientation that occur prior to their contract date of July 1.
Daniel E. Yoder, MD
Robert Clarke, LCSW, LCASA
Diana Curran, MD
Emily Eichhorn, DO, MPH
Teresa Fralix, MD, PhD
Magdalena “Maggie” Hayes, MD
Amber Henson, MD
Bryan Hodge, DO
Eric Monaco, MD
Andrew Morris, MD
Sarah “Asman” Peiffer, MD
Vicki Power, CNM
Matt Roe, MD
Julie Todd, MD
Jem Vanlandingham, LCSW, LCAS
Rivers Woodward, MD, MBA
MaryShell Zaffino, MD
Jiyun Chang, MD, MBA
Hannah Faeben, MD
Claire Lockman, DO, MSc
Madeleine Mendelow, MD
Lyda Rossi, MD
Kassandra “Kassie” Shannon, MD
Emma Doyle, MD
Charlotte Graham, DO, MPH
Alex Janzen, MD
Katie Lively, MD
Jacob Pascual, MD
Allison Weening, DO, MS, MSDEM
Louisa Boswell, MD
Constance Fontanet, MD, MPH
Aleksa Kirsteins, MD
Melinda McKew, MD, MA
Abigail Mohr, MD
Mia von Gal, MD