Kadlec, Trios hospitals welcome new medical residents

Jeremy Dayrit was walking down a hallway at Kadlec Regional Medical Center the other day when a nurse called after her.

“She was saying, ‘Doctor, doctor, doctor,’ because she wanted to ask me something,” Dayrit recalled.

But Dayrit didn’t respond. She’s not used to being called “doctor.”

That’ll soon change.

Dayrit is one of the Richland hospital’s six new medical residents.

For the young physicians, the next three years of residency training will be a defining time — full of long hours, hard work and lots of important lessons.

They’re excited.

“I hope to learn as much as I can and try to have fun at the same time,” said Dr. Clara Abbey, who’s part of the new residency class. “I’m hoping to learn as many skills as possible. If I can be half as good as my (supervising physicians), that would be great.”

A residency is an intense training period that comes after medical school — one doctors must complete to become licensed and board-certified.

In the past few years, the Tri-Cities has become a hub for residency training as Kadlec and Trios Health have started programs.

Trios’ came first, launching in summer 2013. The Kennewick health system’s first class of residents recently graduated, celebrated with cheers and well-wishes in a sendoff outside the main Trios hospital.

Trios has family medicine and internal medicine tracks, with a total of 18 residents on board after a new class of first-years started in late June.

That new class includes Drs. Jan Hallock, Kimberly Matz and Jessica Togiai in family medicine, and Drs. Jessie Coleman, Jesse Isenstadt and Andrew Sou in internal medicine

Along with Dayrit and Abbey, the other new Kadlec residents are Drs. Jamie Hagestedt, Mark Halvorson, Trinh Nguyen and Bill Toukan.

They’re all focused on family medicine.

Dr. Erick Isaacson, residency program director, said he’s pleased with the new class. In their first year, “my hope is that they’ll get comfortable with this community, this environment, this care system,” he said.

“My other hope is that they’ll find this to be a place where they can be educated with encouragement,” Isaacson said.

The new residents have hopes too.

That they’ll learn a lot. That they’ll grow.

“I hope to get as much as I can out of it educationally. To figure out what I need the most — where my learning can benefit the most. Learn my strengths and weaknesses as much as I can,” Toukan said.

“(I want to) continue to learn, continue to improve. Also very importantly to me, by the end of the year I want to be ready for the next class (of residents) coming in.”

This story was originally published July 17, 2016 at 6:48 PM with the headline "Kadlec, Trios hospitals welcome new medical residents."