Its official: Billings Clinics new internal-medicine program has earned accreditation.

The program, designed totrain primary-care physicians in the region, is the first of its kind in Montana and Wyoming. It has been accredited for three years by the Chicago-based Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, the maximum length of time for an initial accreditation. It was one of only four internal-medicine residency programs throughout the nation that achieved accreditation.

At full capacity, the residency program could be producing as many as six new doctors a year.

The hope is that those new doctors will choose to practice in Montana, where most counties have a shortage of primary-care physicians and 10 counties have no physician at all.

The startup investment of "several million dollars" will be underwritten by Billings Clinic, Billings Clinic Foundation and grants.

The next step is torecruit students and some faculty members. Though the formal application process won't begin until September, there has already been a "heartwarming interest from students," said Dr.Roger Bush, director of the program.

The program will open to the first class of students in July 2014. The program will feature six positions each year in the three-year curriculum, a total of 18 slots when full.

The core faculty will be composed of about two dozen Billings Clinic physicians, drawn from the hospitals 240 physicians, and nearly 100 nurse practitioners and physician assistants.

The program will not only provide training in the outpatient and hospital settings but also "will teach our methods for providing care to our rural communities through collaboration, technology, and outreach clinics, Bush said.

"Our strategy is to be a learning laboratory to providebetter care, better health, better costs and to bring joy to the work of caring for others," Bush said.

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Billings Clinic's internal medicine residency program earns accreditation