Marian Regional Medical Center’s Family Medicine and Obstetrics and Gynecology Residency Programs Celebrated their Match Days Friday, Welcoming New Medical Residents

SANTA MARIA, CA – March 15, 2024 – Marian Regional Medical Center’s Family Medicine and Obstetrics and Gynecology residency programs celebrated their match days Friday, welcoming new medical residents to the Central Coast. 

Marian’s Family Medicine Residency Program welcomed six new residents while the Obstetrics and Gynecology Residency Program announced three incoming residents.

Faculty members, current program residents, and staff members celebrated at Marian Regional Medical Center as the incoming residents were announced. Current residents then made congratulatory phone calls to the incoming residents. 

“Being the incoming program director, I’ve not experienced something like this tradition we are seeing today,” said David Mahoney, MD, the Family Medicine Residency Program director. “It just shows how important this residency program is to the incoming residents, the current residents, the staff, the faculty and the larger community. I’m just happy to be a part of it.”

Residents were matched with the programs at Marian via the National Residency Matching Program (NRMP). The NRMP uses a mathematical algorithm to place applicants into residency positions. 

The additions to the Family Medicine Residency Program are Joshua Hernandez, Mia Hirsh, Kayleigh Kresse, Bari Scott, Sarah Rothwell, and Scott Lirgg. 

The Family Medicine Residency Program received 428 applicants and conducted 68 interviews. 

The programs’ leadership and boards recognize the critical need to continue adding family physicians in our region and throughout the nation.

“If you look at the community, as a whole, we are desperately in need of primary care physicians and one of the missions of the residency program is to not only recruit excellent quality physicians, but to maintain those physicians in the surrounding areas so they can give back to the community,” Dr. Mahoney said.  

The three-year Family Medicine Residency Program is ACGME (Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education) accredited with Osteopathic Recognition and approved for six residents per year for a total of 18 residents.

“The Family Medicine Residency Program was created to train doctors to work in our community because our mission is to care for the community,” said Chuck Merrill, MD, the Chief Medical Officer at Marian and the program’s Designated Institutional Official.

The Obstetrics and Gynecology Residency Program welcomed Melanie Rader, Tori Bird and Morgan Desjardins during a ceremony at the Santa Maria Women’s Health Center.

“We have three new people coming in who can really make a difference here,” said Stephanie Lin, MD, the residency program’s director. “Every year we’re adding to that pool of physicians who can take care of our community.”

The Obstetrics and Gynecology Residency Program received 402 applications from medical students and 71 were interviewed for the three positions that were announced Friday. 

“We matched three really competitive, incredible applicants, for our community,” said Anne Kennard, DO, the associate program director. “It really shows that we’re recruiting the best and brightest to the Central Coast.”

The Marian Obstetrics and Gynecology Residency Program is also ACGME accredited and welcomes three new residents every academic year into the four-year program for a total of 12 residents. 

The Santa Maria Women’s Health Center is the practice site for the program’s resident physicians and where they will care for their own panel of patients under the supervision of dedicated faculty physicians.

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About Marian Regional Medical Center

Marian Regional Medical Center is a state-of-the-art, 191-bed medical center located in Santa Maria. The modern facility is home to a broad array of services including a level II trauma center, a level II neonatal intensive care unit, a nationally recognized cardiac care center, and boasts the Central Coast’s only Comprehensive Community Cancer Program as recognized by the Commission on Cancer.

About Dignity Health Central Coast 

Marian Regional Medical Center together with Arroyo Grande Community Hospital in Arroyo Grande, and French Hospital Medical Center in San Luis Obispo, comprise Dignity Health Central Coast, a network of hospitals, physicians, and outpatient services including physician offices, ambulatory surgery centers, technologically-advanced laboratories and imaging centers, and a full service home health agency. Learn more at dignityhealth.org/marianregional.