P1345806

Rural Residency Planning and Development Program - Eligible Entity Type: Not for Profit Rural Hospital
Project Director Contact Information: Ellie Popadic, popadie@sutterhealht.org
800 E. Washington Blvd.
Crescent City, CA 95531; 707-464-8857

Residency Program Director Contact Information: Tara Scott, MD, scottt3@sutterhealth.org
3569 Roundbarn Circle, Santa Rosa, CA 95403; 707-696-6947

Residency Specialty & Type: Family Medicine, 1-2 RTT
Sponsoring Institution: Sutter Coast Hospital
Rural Target Area: Del Norte County, CA
Funding Amount Requested: $750,000
Program Sustainability Option: 1 and 3
Projected Number of Residents: 6
Expected ACGME Accreditation Date: 7/1/2023
Expected Residency Matriculation Date: 7/1/2024

Sutter Coast Hospital (SCH), a not-for-profit rural hospital located in Del Norte County, California, seeks to develop a Rural Training Tract (RTT) program in Family Medicine (FM) in partnership with Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital’s (SSRRH) existing Family Medicine Residency Program. Both Sutter Coast Hospital and Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital are affiliates of the Sutter Health organization. The mission of the organization is to “enhance the well-being of people in the communities we serve through a not-for-profit commitment to compassion and excellence in healthcare service.”

Both Del Norte County, CA, and Curry County, OR which comprises most of the hospital’s service area, are medically underserved areas, and health professions shortage areas for primary care, dental health, and mental health. The population of Del Norte County suffers disproportionately from health disparities, including a lack of primary care providers (ratio 2,985 residents: 1 provider). The service area’s premature age-adjusted mortality is twice as high as the overall rate for the state of California.

The overarching goal of the Family Medicine RTT program is to address the physician shortage in Del Norte County and to improve the health outcomes of the county’s population, for whom access to primary health care is limited. SSRRH will serve as the urban academic medical center for the first year of training, and SCH as the rural setting where the final two years of training will occur. Residents will return to SSRRH during their second and third years only if that is essential to meet volume requirements in specialties not available in the rural setting. The FM RTT residents will spend more than 51% of their time at rural SCH, providing them with the depth and breadth of knowledge needed to meet patients’ complex health care needs in rural underserved communities.

This collaborative effort between SCH and SSRRH will help address the growing need for family medicine services in rural Del Norte County by immediately creating more resident providers who can offer continuity in outpatient practice starting in year 2 of training, and by retaining graduates of the program in the service area following their training, as studies show that physicians trained in RTT programs are more likely to practice in the rural setting.

Program objectives and goals include designing the program curriculum to meet the complex health needs of rural Del Norte County; hiring qualified staff; submitting a new program application to the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) to achieve accreditation by July 1, 2023; recruiting 6 FM residents and retaining at least 50% of them post-graduation in rural Del Norte County; sustaining the FM RTT program through a combination of funding streams; publicly reporting on resident career outcomes for at least 5 years after the first graduating class.

The RTT will support 2 residents in the first year, 2 in the second year, and 2 in the third year, supporting a total of 6 residents per year at full complement. Once the program has achieved an accreditation status of continued accreditation from ACGME, program leadership may request a complement size increase. SCH has not received any HRSA funding.

Sutter Coast Hospital

NOT APPLICABLE

93.155 - Rural Health Research Centers

HRSA Office of Federal Assistance Management (OFAM) [HHS - HRSA]

Crescent City, California United States

City-Wide

Rural Residency Planning and Development Program (HRSA-22-094)