Amid today's healthcare workforce challenges, Sacramento, Calif.-based Sutter Health will add a physician residency training track aimed at increasing the number of primary care providers in rural areas it serves, according to an Oct. 4 health system news release.
The track — which is being funded through a $750,000 Health Resources and Services Administration grant — will begin at Sutter Coast Hospital in Crescent City, Calif., in partnership with Sutter Santa Rosa (Calif.) Regional Hospital's family medicine residency program. Physicians will train for one year with Sutter Santa Rosa's program, followed by two years of training with Sutter Coast as a teaching hospital in a rural setting.
Under the new track, resident physicians will do rotations at Sutter Coast Hospital and Sutter Coast Community Clinic. Sutter Health said it expects the first two resident physicians to begin their residency in 2025, with six physician residents in the rural residency program annually by 2027 (four in Crescent City and two in Santa Rosa).
"Because of the strength of its integrated network, Sutter has created multiple residency and fellowship programs in primary care and specialty areas over the last two decades," Brian Alexander, Sutter Health's hospital area CEO for North Valley, said in the health system news release. "By adding this residency program in Del Norte County, we can help address the shortage of family medicine providers that is being felt disproportionately in rural areas. We are working to strengthen the physician pipeline throughout our integrated network, so our patients receive the same high-quality care no matter what community they live in."
Read more about the program here.