Three Crosses gains internal medicine residency program

The group that accredits graduate medical training programs for physicians in the U.S. gave its approval recently to Three Crosses Regional Hospital for a new residency program in internal medicine, which will begin with 24 residents over the next three years.

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education approved accreditation for an internal medicine residency at Three Crosses in late January. Once accredited, the program received about

4,000 medical students from the U.S. and other countries. Out of that, hospital staff interviewed 60 and selected eight applicants for its first year, said Dr. Muhammad Owais Khan, a residency program director, said. The program will include 24 residents over three years, he said.

Three Crosses Regional Hospital’s new internal medicine residency program is “a lifeline for healthcare in our city and our county,” Khan said.

Khan said the eight chosen are a diverse group and noted that most speak Spanish, which he called “vital” since Las Cruces is more than 50% Hispanic. The new residents will be welcomed to Las Cruces in July, Khan said.

The goal for the residency program is to train “quality physicians who are able to practice in-patient and out-patient medicine locally,” said Khan, a native of Pakistan who came to Las Cruces in 2020.

“I want to locally train the physicians and keep them here,” he said.

Three Crosses joins Memorial Medical Center and MountainView Regional Medical Center in having a residency program, Khan said, which means Las Cruces will be able to provide more primary care doctors “to alleviate the shortage and get everyone the same quality of care so they don’t have to go outside Las Cruces.”

Three Crosses residents will be trained by “very, very talented leadership” at the hospital, he said. The doctors who will lead the training are “board-certified internal medicine physicians,” said Khan. Collectively, they speak seven different languages, he said, including Spanish.

“We are very blessed,” said Khan, who, in addition to holding an M.D. degree, also possesses a master’s degree in business and health care law. He also is board certified in quality assurance and utilization review and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians and the Society of Hospital Medicine. Kahn serves on the faculty of Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine in Las Cruces.

The 46-bed Three Crosses Regional Hospital opened in 2020 at 2560 Samaritan Drive. It specializes in cardiology, internal medicine and primary care, emergency medicine, constructive and reconstructive surgery, nephrology, endocrinology, orthopedics, general surgery, pain management, gynecology and vascular surgery, and neurosurgery and gastroenterology are available to consult in the hospital, Khan said.