A historic day for Beebe Healthcare
Beebe Healthcare has its first four residents for its newly established family medicine residency program.
The residents were named during Match Day March 17, an annual event marking the conclusion of a comprehensive application process that medical students undergo in pursuit of residency and fellowship opportunities across the United States. Physicians all found out their residencies at noon.
The event, attended by dozens of staff, was held in the R. Randall Rollins Center for Medical Education. The residency program will take place in the newly-renovated Shaw Building, the original Beebe Hospital.
“I’ve been here for 25 years, and this is our most historical day,” said Dr. Jeffrey Hawtof, administrative director of Beebe graduate medical education, director of provider IT and medical education. He is also a member of Beebe Family Practice - Beacon.
“This is our first Match Day of the first residency program in the First Town in the First State,” he added.
Beebe Healthcare President and CEO Dr. David Tam said the residency program celebrates Beebe’s heritage while embracing the future of physicians’ training.
Tam said the Shaw Building, built in the early 1920s, is the most visible reminder of that heritage. It was constructed of bricks made by the father of the two founding brothers, doctors James and Richard Beebe “Their father, using a Sears brick press, made the dream of his two sons come true,” he said.
“We have been teaching nurses for more than 100 years. Now we are a teaching hospital for physicians,” he added.
The day had extra significance for Tam, who started his job at Beebe on March 17, 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic state of emergency was enacted.
Dr. Joyce Robert, the family medicine residency program director, likened the day to the basketball Final Four. Robert comes to Beebe with an impressive resume that includes 10 years of teaching at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.
She had the honor to introduce the four residents: Harrison Eckert, DO, of Orefield, Pa., Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine; Dr. Monica Javadian of Aarhus, Denmark, and Northern Virginia, American University of the Caribbean; Sofia Perez Perez, DO, of Santo Domingo and Tampa, Fla., and Jacob Valvis of Hockessin, both of Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine.
The residents will begin their training this July. They will take part in a three-year academic program while seeing patients at Beebe Medical Practice in Long Neck, and gain hands-on experience in emergency medicine, general surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, cardiology, pulmonary, pediatrics, intensive care, palliative care, orthopedics, ophthalmology, urology and sports medicine.
