HCA Houston Healthcare Kingwood intends to bring young medical residents to the Lake Houston area to complete their residency programs and serve the growing health care needs in the area.

HCA Houston Healthcare Kingwood recently received accreditations from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education for its internal medicine and surgery residency programs in September and January, respectively.

Chief Operating Officer Robert Marmerstein said 20 internal medicine residents and four surgical residents began their residency at the hospital July 1. He said surgical residents will participate in a five-year program, while internal medicine residents will participate in a three-year program.

Marmerstein said these new residency programs will bring more doctors to the Lake Houston area, which will help meet the health care demands of the area’s growing population. He also said the hospital intends to introduce other residency programs in the future.

“As our population in this area grows and the supply of physicians in our country continues to not keep pace with demand, we want to build a program that attracts young, highly qualified physicians to this area to complete their training in hopes that they’ll choose to remain in this area and practice in this area for their careers,” Marmerstein said.

HCA Houston Healthcare Kingwood invested roughly $3.2 million to construct residency space on the south side of the hospital’s campus, Marmerstein said. He said the 5,000-square-foot space features classroom and learning spaces as well as on-call sleep rooms.

Correction: The article has been updated from its original format to state the correct program length for surgical residents is five years.