UNM neurosurgery residency program gains full accreditation

The University of New Mexico School of Medicine’s Department of Neurosurgery has gained full accreditation for its physician residency program five years after it was revoked.

A UNM news release last week stated the accreditation from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, or ACGME, “ensures that the state’s only neurosurgery training program will continue developing highly skilled specialists to serve New Mexico.” ACGME conducted a “rigorous site visit” in September before granting the program the “Continued Accreditation without Outcomes” designation, according to the news release.

“The neurosurgery residency training program is a foundational component of UNM Hospital’s Level I Trauma Program,” said Dr. Griffith Harsh, chair of the university’s Department of Neurosurgery.

The full accreditation follows the university’s original reaccreditation in 2022. The program had lost its accreditation in 2019 and closed in 2020 after residents in the program banded together and wrote a letter to the school’s accrediting agency complaining about their working conditions.

The program was back up and running by April 2022, with the first resident joining just a few months later in July, said Chris Ramirez, a UNM Health spokesperson. He told the Journal the program currently has four physicians in the program and will eventually have seven, “which is one per year of training.”

The program can pursue additional physicians for the program once it reaches that number.

UNM receives more than 200 applications each year for the single first-year residency position, according to the news release.

The full accreditation is also a big victory for Harsh, the department head who took over at the start of this year following a stint as the chairman of the council that revoked the accreditation of the residency program he now oversees.

“Those who train here are more likely to remain in the state,” Harsh said. “Furthermore, the academic emphasis of a neurosurgery training program improves the quality of patient care, fosters both clinical and more basic scientific discovery, and enhances the learning environment for all.”