RESIDENCY CORNER
Russell Maier, MD / Program Director
For over 17 years the Central Washington Family Medicine Residency Program has been committed to the development of excellent, board-certified family physicians with demonstrated clinical, technical and interpersonal skills. We are proud of the residency’s continuing role in improving the health of our communities and celebrate the Class of 2010’s graduation. Three of these physicians will remain in the Yakima Valley. One will relocate to another Central Washington community, one will return to California to practice in the neighborhood where he grew up and one will return to the eastern U.S. to practice.
As a dually ACGME/AOA accredited program, we participate in two matches and carefully select our residents from a large and diverse applicant pool. 50% of our Class of 2013 did student rotations with us and five of the six are originally from the Northwest with one of the five born and raised in the Yakima Valley. The class includes one married couple, the fourth resident couple in the history of the program.
In keeping with our mission of service and education, we are active participants in the discussion regarding formation of teaching health centers as funded in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. We have been a Teaching Health Center for years before such a term existed. Our community health center owned residency program has been in existence since 2003, and at the time of our conversion, were one of only three CHC owned family medicine residencies in the nation.
We continue to pursue opportunities that will optimize resident education. Our Pediatric Hospitalist Service initiated in the fall of 2009 has received rave reviews for inpatient pediatric teaching in the first and second years of training and the move of the Rural Medicine rotation to elective status allowed for an additional Ambulatory Pediatrics rotation in the R-3 year. In academic year 2010-2011 we will pilot our new Surgical Subspecialty rotation which will include Urology, Otolaryngology, and Ophthalmology.
We invite you to Learn, Serve, and Enjoy with us!