Wayne Memorial Community Health Centers and Wayne Memorial Hospital Sign Training Agreement with IUP

Honesdale, PA – (July 9, 2025) On Tuesday, July 8, 2025, Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP), Wayne Memorial Community Health Centers (WMCHC), and Wayne Memorial Hospital formalized a clinical training affiliation agreement for future students at Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s proposed college of osteopathic medicine. IUP formally initiated steps toward accreditation in late 2022. Securing clinical training sites for students is part of the successful accreditation process.

“Wayne Memorial Community Health Centers and Wayne Memorial Hospital are quintessential rural healthcare facilities, embedded, focused, and critical to the health and wellness of their communities,” stated Dr. Miko Rose, founding dean, IUP proposed College of Osteopathic Medicine. “Partnerships with these two institutions, the first in this region, allows us to offer opportunities to our future students in this area, including students from in or around Wayne County studying at universities in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education.”

Typically, students in colleges of osteopathic medicine spend the first two years of their education in the classroom; during the third and fourth years, students are based in the community at clinical sites. Wayne Memorial Hospital and WMCHC would potentially see their first medical students in the summer of 2029.

WMCHC CEO Teresa Lacey, RN, BSN, reflected on how collaboration between medical schools and FQHCs is vital to strengthening both medical education and community health. “By working together, IUP and WMCHC create meaningful opportunities to advance health equity, enhance training for future healthcare professionals, and improve access to high-quality care in underserved communities,” she stated.

Wayne Memorial Hospital CEO James Pettinato, BSN, MHSA, CCRN-K, emphasized the benefits for rural hospitals. “With an opportunity to train students who already call this area home, we can build a pipeline of future physicians who understand our community, our values and our unique healthcare needs as a rural hospital,” he said.

“These two facilities align perfectly with our commitment to rural health care and the healthcare model that we want our students to understand. Wayne Memorial Community Health Centers provides a unique training opportunity for our students, magnified by their relationship with Wayne Memorial Hospital. These two clinical training agreements will offer our students first-hand experiences with outpatient and inpatient continuity of care that most students just don’t have the chance to experience,” stated Dr Rose.

The Wayne Memorial Community Health Centers and the Wayne Memorial Hospital clinical training agreements are IUP’s 15th and 16th formal signed agreements.

For more information on IUP proposed college of osteopathic medicine, visit https://www.iup.edu/president/proposed-com/index.html

Photo: Leadership members shown following the signing event are, left to right: James Pettinato, CEO, Wayne Memorial Hospital/Wayne Memorial Health System; Richard Hacker, MD, family medical residency program director, WMCHC; Erica Brown, chief development officer, WMCHC; Teresa Lacey, CEO, WMCHC; Dr. Miko Rose, founding dean, IUPCOM and Dr. Ryan Smith, associate dean of clinical affairs and GME, IUPCOM.