Southern Colorado Family Medicine Residency Receives ACGME Rural Training Track Accreditation

November 4, 2015

(PUEBLO, COLO.) The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) recently awarded Southern Colorado Family Medicine Residency, a department of St. Mary-Corwin Medical Center, with a three-year Rural Training Track (RTT) in an effort to train and retain family physicians in rural and underserved areas. The two additional family practice residents will complete their first year at Southern Colorado Family Medicine at St. Mary-Corwin in Pueblo, and their second and third years at San Luis Valley Health and Valley-Wide Health Systems in Alamosa.

Colorado faces a shortage of primary care physicians due to population growth and the aging and retirement of physicians. The RTT provides graduate medical training to prepare resident physicians broadly for rural family medicine and aims to increase the number of family medicine residency graduates who practice in rural and underserved areas, and to ensure the sustainability of resident training programs funded mainly through patient care revenue and federal Medicare payments.

With primary care professionals in short supply and a higher proportion of near-retirement physicians in rural areas, building the primary care workforce in rural markets is a critical need, said Emillia Lloyd, MD, program director, Southern Colorado Family Medicine. While traditional family medicine residencies like Southern Colorado Family Medicine are a pipeline for rural physicians, those residents completing a RTT are even more likely to practice in rural areas as physicians who often choose to practice in settings similar to their residency experience.

Inaugurated in 1975, Southern Colorado Family Medicine is an academically-rigorous and innovative dually-accredited American Osteopathic Association/ACGME program with affiliations to University of Colorado School of Medicine Aurora, Colo. and Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Parker, Colo. The local program produces leaders in clinical family medicine and focuses on the increasingly complex skills needed by family physicians.

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About St. Mary-Corwin Medical Center
St. Mary-Corwin Medical Center is nationally recognized for its award-winning programs in womens services, orthopedics, cancer, cardiology, stroke, trauma and emergency services. St. Mary-Corwins expert team of physicians, nurses and caregivers provide compassionate, quality patient care, with access to the latest in medical technology. St. Mary-Corwin is part of Centura Health, the regions leading health care network. For more information visit St. Mary-Corwin Medical Center or follow us on Twitter @StMaryCorwinand on Facebook.

Media Contact:
Wendi Dammann
St. Mary-Corwin Medical Center, administrative director, business development
719-251-6541 (cell)
[email protected]