McLaren Port Huron Earns Accreditation for Graduate Medical Education Program, Launches Internal Medicine Residency

McLaren Port Huron, part of McLaren Health Care and the leading regional health care provider, has earned accreditation from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) to launch a Graduate Medical Education program, providing clinical training to resident physicians. The program will provide placement for internal medicine residents initially with plans for more specialties.

Launching in July, the new program’s six initial IM resident physicians will be under the leadership of program director Dr. Sivateja Mandava and provide care through the new McLaren Port Huron Center for Academic Internal Medicine, located at 1216 Richardson Street in Port Huron, increasing primary care access in the Blue Water Area.

“We are grateful to our core faculty, the Medical Executive Committee, the McLaren Port Huron Board of Directors and our GME team,” said Dr. John Brooks, MD, Chief Medical Officer at McLaren Port Huron. “Under the leadership of Dr. Mandava and support from McLaren Health Care’s GME team, we clearly demonstrated our commitment to training the next generation of physicians for our community.”

The accreditation process included a site visit, extensive interviews and a review of the proposed curriculum, including plans for resident wellbeing. Plans for additional GME specialties will be announced.

“We’re excited to bring in young physicians to train here in our community,” said Eric Cecava, McLaren Port Huron President and CEO, “and our goal is that they establish a connection with the Blue Water community that they choose to remain here to continue their medical careers.”

Internist Dr. Hnin Lwin will serve as the medical director of the Academic Internal Medicine clinic. Additional GME core faculty include: Dr. Saurabh Gandhi (associate program director), Dr. Michael Basha, Dr. Amandeep Sawana, with Kristen Edgerton serving as program administrator.

“We are excited to embark on this journey with our first class of resident physicians who will receive hands-on experience at an exceptional facility in a thriving community,” said Erin Reis, Ph.D., Associate Chief Academic Officer for McLaren Health Care. “Achieving accreditation has been a year-long journey, made possible because of the great leadership support by both the medical staff and hospital leadership at McLaren Port Huron.”

A three-year program, six IM residents will join the program every year, reaching full maturation in 2026 with 18 residents.

“The role a primary care physician has in his or her patients’ general health and well-being cannot be overstated,” Dr. Mandava said. “We are a community hospital that serves a broad geographic area and functions as a referral center for the entire Thumb. Having access to high-quality primary care medicine is a critical need that this program can help fill.”

Learn more about all services provided at McLaren Port Huron at mclaren.org/porthuron.

About McLaren Port Huron
McLaren Port Huron is a 186-bed non-profit hospital located in Port Huron, Michigan, with a strong history of providing quality, compassionate care to residents living in St. Clair and Sanilac counties. It has earned repeated recognition for both clinical excellence and patient safety from nationally renowned health care rating organizations. McLaren Port Huron provides a full range of services, including cardiovascular care, award-winning cancer services through the Karmanos Cancer Institute, orthopedic services, and general, bariatric and robotic-assisted surgeries. The hospital is nationally verified as a Level III Trauma Center and operates the busiest Emergency Department in St. Clair County. Other services include family birthing services and the only accredited sleep center in the region. In addition to its main campus in Port Huron, the hospital operates community health centers in Marysville, Yale, Lexington, and St. Clair. Learn more at mclaren.org/porthuron.

About McLaren Health Care
McLaren Health Care, headquartered in Grand Blanc, Michigan, is a $6.6 billion, fully integrated health care delivery system committed to quality, evidence-based patient care and cost efficiency. The McLaren system includes 13 hospitals in Michigan, ambulatory surgery centers, imaging centers, a 490-member employed primary and specialty care physician network, commercial and Medicaid HMOs covering more than 732,838 lives in Michigan and Indiana, home health, infusion and hospice providers, pharmacy services, a clinical laboratory network and a wholly owned medical malpractice insurance company. McLaren operates Michigan’s largest network of cancer centers and providers, anchored by the Karmanos Cancer Institute, a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer centers in the U.S. McLaren has 28,000 full-, part-time and contracted employees and more than 113,000 network providers throughout Michigan, Indiana and Ohio. Learn more at mclaren.org.