Press Releases: Northern California
November 14, 2007
Local Family Medicine Residency Consortium Announces $2.9 Million Community Benefit Grant from Kaiser Permanente
Major donation provides salaries and benefits for new doctor training
OAKLAND, Calif. – The Santa Rosa Family Medicine Residency Consortium will continue to train Family Medicine physicians with the aid of $2,952,500 from Kaiser Permanente. The funding was announced by Colin Kopes-Kerr, MD, JD, MPH, Santa Rosa Family Medicine Residency Consortium program director.
"We're grateful that Kaiser Permanente has acknowledged the critical role of the Residency Program to the future of health care in Sonoma County and has boldly taken on the burden of leadership and stewardship to insure the future of the Residency," said Kopes-Kerr.
The funding will provide salary and benefits for 36 full-time Family Medicine residents and a Graduate Medical Education coordinator, support faculty development, and provide educational and office materials for the Consortium.
"We are proud that Kaiser Permanente can support the Residency Program," said Judy Coffey, KP senior vice president and Marin-Sonoma area manager. "In addition to training top quality physicians, the residents care for large numbers of uninsured and underinsured community members through a unique relationship with the Southwest Community Health Center."
Of the 264 graduates of this Residency Program over the past 25 years, 82 are in private practice in Sonoma County, 29 serve in Sonoma County community clinics or Public Health, 25 are on the staff at Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa Medical Center, 11 are affiliated with the Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa, and many more serve in communities neighboring Sonoma County.
In addition to clinical rotations at Kaiser, Sutter, and Memorial hospitals, residents provide direct care to underserved populations at the Southwest Community Health Center. "Kaiser's support in the formation of the Residency Consortium has been critical to our success," said Naomi Fuchs, SCHC chief executive officer.
"Kaiser Permanente has a key role in the future of this residency program, which is truly one of top programs in the country for training in family medicine," said Bob Schultz, MD, physician in chief at the Santa Rosa Medical Center. "This funding is part of the ambitious role Kaiser Permanente has taken on for local medical education."
Started in 1938 to train general practice doctors at the Sonoma County Hospital, which later became Community Hospital and then Sutter Medical Center, the Residency Program was recently in dire straights, with Sutter Hospital's imminent closure and discontinued sponsorship of the program.
Not willing to let the Residency Program fail, a group of local physicians, hospitals and health care organizations formed a stakeholder committee, which developed into the Consortium, a nonprofit partnership to ensure the future of the Residency Program.
The Consortium consists of UCSF, County of Sonoma, Sutter Hospital (which will be maintaining an outpatient presence), Southwest Community Clinics, Memorial Hospital, and Kaiser Permanente.
