Ascension Sacred Heart welcomes new CEO and physical residency program

BAY COUNTY, Fla. ( WMBB ) – Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast Hospital has a new CEO and a new program.

They’ve started a physician residency program in hopes of attracting more doctors to the local area. This is a partnership with the Florida Department of Health in Walton County and the University of Florida.

Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast also brought on Trey Abshier as their new president and CEO on July 15th.

Abshier said his values brought him to the Emerald Coast.

“Ascension really drew me in their mission of caring for the poor and vulnerable and it’s something that I value and have valued more and more as my career has progressed. And this is a great opportunity. One of the ascension flagship hospitals to join. And I couldn’t be happier with the choice,” Abshier said.

Even though he is only 7 days into the job, Abshier plans on bringing in specialties to the area.

“What I have heard in my short time is a need for additional specialties whether that’s primary care, urology, or cardiology, and we are really doing a good job. We’re going to be doing a better job of bringing those specialties to the area. The last thing I want to hear is community members leaving the market to go seek care in another state. My goal is to provide a situation and a culture where the community can come see their local primary care doctor in and around the area in which they live,” Abshier said.

The new program will be stationed at the Walton County Health Department.

“This program is we’re developing residents that we hope want to stay in our community. We found out years ago when we were doing our community needs assessment. There’s a real need in our area for more clinician providers in the area,” Health Office Administrator Holly Holt said.

Ascension and the Department of Health are working with the University of Florida, already onboarding 6 residents into the 3-year program.

They’ll continue to add 6 each year, so there are always 18 in the training program. As each class finishes, they’ll be recruited to stay local.

“The proven way to address a physician shortage is to start a training program because if you train them locally, physicians are more likely to stay locally and in the community. So in three years, they’ll graduate, and then hopefully, hopefully, most of them will sign contracts and stay locally and take care of patients,” Program Director of the University of Florida, Joshua Hodge said.

Holt said the health department is the first in the state to bring in residents because they are a family-qualified health center.

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