TUPELO, Miss.—The Auxiliary of North Mississippi Medical Center recently donated $150,000 to help launch the hospital’s new Internal Medicine Residency Program.

The residency program kicks off July 1 with 12 internal medicine physicians who have completed medical school and will spend three years training in internal medicine throughout NMMC. “The Internal Medicine Residency Program and I are eternally grateful to the Auxiliary for supporting us,” said David Pizzimenti, D.O., NMMC associate medical officer of Acute Care, who leads the residency program and hospitalist program. “This donation will have a tremendous impact on building our state-of-the-art academic and resident work area that will help prepare excellent internal medicine physicians for years to come.”

The Internal Medicine Residency Program will operate similarly to NMMC’s Family Medicine Residency Program, which was founded in 1994. In addition to daily lectures and case presentations Monday-Friday, residents will rotate through various areas—critical care, pulmonology, gastroenterology, cardiology, palliative care, geriatrics, rheumatology, endocrinology and nephrology—to gain diverse experience.

The Auxiliary donation will help furnish a renovated space at the hospital to include a lecture space, conference room, work area and resident lounge with lockers. Residents will also maintain a clinic inside IMA-Tupelo.

“Sales from our Gift and Floral Shop make this donation possible,” said Auxiliary President Catherline Payne. “We appreciate patients and their families, as well as hospital employees, supporting our Gift and Floral Shop. We chose this project because it’s important to have good internal medicine doctors in this area, and we hope they will remain here after they finish their training.”

NMMC President David Wilson says establishing the program is a multi-year, multi-million-dollar investment. “We are thankful that the Auxiliary has decided to help us make sure the new training facilities are equipped with the furnishings and audio-visual equipment necessary to provide the best learning environment,” Wilson said. “Attracting residents, especially to a new program, is highly competitive and this $150,000 donation will ensure that we have the facilities to compete with well known, established programs.”

Additional faculty members are Drs. Brad Boldizar, Amy Doyle, Renee Walters, Renata Palasiewicz and Marissa Cruz. Dr. Boldizar, who has been an NMMC hospitalist for seven years and now serves on the Internal Medicine Residency Program, says he, his wife and three young sons have adopted Tupelo as home. “Unless someone is from this area or happens to start a family here, retention of physicians is challenging,” Dr. Boldizar said.  “It is a very financially difficult endeavor to launch a program of this scale off the ground. The Auxiliary’s contribution will be vital in assisting us. I'm confident that by bringing this program here, it will be a constant pipeline for years to come to supply the area with the much-needed medical staff.”

The Auxiliary is comprised of community members who have a special interest in NMMC. Other recent projects have included the shuttle bus, pediatric unit renovation and chapel. For more information, call the Auxiliary Gift and Floral Shop at (662) 377-4194 or 1-800-THE DESK (1-800-843-3375).