Kalamazoo, Mich.-based Bronson Healthcare, Battle Creek, Mich.-based Grace Health and the Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine, also in Kalamazoo, are collaborating on a family residency training program for medical students, according to the Grand Rapids Business Journal.
Six physicians will be accepted into the three-year program at Bronson Healthcare's Battle Creek, Mich., campus. Officials said they aim to have 18 family medicine residents practicing at any given time once the program is approved this year. Training for the program's inaugural class will begin in summer 2018. However, the program will not go into effect until its facility in Battle Creek, Mich., receives designation as a teaching hospital, according to the article.
The Grace Health facility will reportedly serve as the outpatient training site for students in the program.
Three grants of $1 million each from the Bronson Healthcare Group, the Bronson Battle Creek Hospital Community Partners and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation were used to fund the program.
"Bronson is committed to doing all we can to improve access to care in our region," said Bronson Healthcare President and CEO Frank Sardone. "Establishing a teaching program at Bronson Battle Creek, similar to what we have in Kalamazoo, is a purposeful way to expand the base of primary care providers now and well into the future."