As of Friday, Aug. 1, the first four residents at Butler Memorial Hospital have been on the job for a month.

We learned in the Thursday edition of the Butler Eagle that four residents began working at the hospital July 1, marking the start of a long-planned residency program.

The residents are Rachel Cataldo from the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine, Lauren Duttry from the Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine, Gerald “Jerry” Eddis from American University of the Caribbean and Amba Pasupuleti from MNR Medical College in India.

Originally supposed to start in 2023, the accreditation process took several years. Only four residents were accepted this year, but next year the hospital plans to accept four more, with eight residents accepted per year after that.

The hope is having fewer residents to start will help the program ramp up more quickly.

“The benefit with starting with four instead of eight was really just to get the hospital used to having them around and see how things work before we bring in that first full class of eight,” program director Dr. Joe Dougherty explained.

We believe the program is going to be beneficial to everyone. The hospital will have more doctors able to see patients, the residents will get experience working in a rural area and patients will have access to doctors who otherwise might not have come to Butler.

Having more doctors is essential, as a study by the hospital showed about half the primary care physicians in the county will be of retirement age by 2030. Hopefully, some of the residents will fall in love with our community and establish their practices here.

We think Independence Health System made the right decision by launching the residency program and we hope it sees years of success.

— JK