ARMC Receives $2,410,000 to Support Graduate Medical Education

Physicians for a Healthy California has awarded Arrowhead Regional $2,410,000 in CalMedForce grants for FY 2021-22.

Arrowhead Regional Medical Center (ARMC) has been awarded $2,410,000 in CalMedForce grants to support Graduate Medical Education (GME) in the financial year 2021-22. These grants, part of Physicians for a Healthy California, will fund new residency positions and additional opportunities in ARMC’s Emergency Medicine, Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, and Obstetrics & Gynecology residency programs.

“Our resident physicians are committed to providing exceptional care throughout our community,” said Dotun Ogunyemi, MD, Designated Institutional Official of ARMC’s Graduate Medical Education Department. “These grants will have a tremendous impact on our ability to expand our physician workforce with additional residents and provide the highest level of care to medically underserved populations within our community.”

CalMedForce utilizes voter-approved state tobacco tax revenues from California Proposition 56 (2016) to generate funding for their annual grants, which will fund new GME residency positions and aid in training physicians to counter the growing physician shortage in the state of California. Awardees serve medically underserved areas and populations across 28 counties in California.

31 of California’s 58 counties lack the number of primary care providers recommended by national health experts. Per a study by the California Future Health Workforce Commission, it is estimated that California will need an additional 4,700 primary care clinicians by 2025 and approximately 4,100 more by 2030 in order to meet the growing demand.

“California’s physician shortage has been greatly exacerbated by the lack of sufficient residency spots,” stated Teresa Smith, Healthcare Program Administrator of ARMC’s Graduate Medical Education Department. “In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become more critical than ever to ensure that nothing is limiting the number of new doctors entering the workforce to provide care to Californians in need.”

CalMedForce has countered this by awarding over $112 million in grants to date to hundreds of hospitals, medical centers, and community clinics to retain and expand GME programs in primary care (family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, and obstetrics and gynecology) and emergency medicine.

“CalMedForce recognizes the immense need and demand for GME opportunities,” said William Gilbert, ARMC Hospital Director. “Their funding will support us in creating a stronger physician force to help us in turn support our community.”

For more information about CalMedForce, visit CalMedForce.org. For more information about Physicians for a Healthy California, visit www.phcdocs.org. For more information about Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, visit www.arrowheadregional.org.