Training Family Medicine residents is the sole focus of graduate medical education for our entire medical community. Our residents do not compete with residents from any other speciality. Unlike institutions with multiple residencies, our residents whether in the clinic or in the hospital, enjoy the unchallenged opportunity of treating patients with a wide variety of medical conditions. They receive mentoring from both Family Physicians, as well as a wide variety of specialists in our community.
Because Humboldt County is both rural and isolated, patients in our community receive almost all of their medical care here. Few of our patients leave the community for their care because it is over 275 miles to the nearest tertiary care center. This has led to the development of advanced capabilities more typically seen in larger hospitals and communities and provides our residents exposure to patients with a wide range of medical conditions rarely available to Family Medicine residents in other rural programs.
Although we have only 138 acute beds and a 10 bed Acute Rehabilitation Unit, Providence St. Joseph Hospital Eureka is the regional medical center for a large geographic area. We are the only Level III Trauma Center, the only Level II NICU, the only STEMI Receiving Hospital, open heart surgery program and the only Regional Cancer Center for over 150 miles in any direction. Whether in the ER, ICU, on Inpatient Medicine, Obstetrics, Surgery, Cardiology or Cancer Care, our residents get experience in treating a wide variety of patients. Being a regional center combined with the fact that our program is unopposed, creates a robust educational opportunity for Family Medicine residents.
Our program is a partnership with Open Door Community Health Centers. Open Door is a Federally Qualified Community Health Center (FQHC) with over 12 locations on the North Coast whose mission is to provide quality medical, dental, and behavioral health services, and education to all, regardless of financial, geographic, or social barriers. Our residents see their outpatients weekly at Redwood Community Health Center, adjacent to the hospital. They are assigned a panel of patients from their first day which they follow for their 3 years of training in a Patient Centered Medical Home. Residents also see patients on the Mobile Medical Clinic serving the homeless population.
Physicians in specialties including hospitalist medicine, emergency medicine, critical care medicine, pediatrics, orthopedics, physical medicine & rehabilitations, neurosurgery, neurology, cardiology, hematology oncology, general & trauma surgery and more from the Providence Medical Group, Humboldt participate as faculty in the Program.
Our residency program is fortunate to have the support of our entire medical community. Core faculty in the residents’ clinic are experienced Family Medicine physicians from Open Door Community Health Centers. Providence Medical Group, Humboldt provides an extensive variety of medical specialists in the hospital as well as outpatient clinics. Specialist physicians from Open Door as well as community physicians in private practice are all involved in teaching and mentoring our Family Medicine residents. Whether on hospital rotations, in Inpatient Medicine, in the ER or ICU, in Surgery, or in Labor and Delivery, our residents receive the undivided attention from a wide variety of experienced physicians in our community. Our residents also see patients in the offices of many community physicians on rotations in Dermatology, Orthopedic Surgery, Cardiology, Pediatrics and Geriatric Medicine.
