PRH, WSU to open Family Medicine Residency Center

Emily Pearce, Moscow-Pullman Daily News, Moscow, Idaho
·2 min read

Sep. 22—Pullman Regional Hospital and Washington State University will hold a ceremony to celebrate its combined efforts in developing the Family Medicine Residency program.

The hospital and WSU invite community members to attend a ribbon-cutting ceremony and tours of the facility at 4 p.m. today on the ground floor of the institution at 835 SE Bishop Blvd., in Pullman. The event will be the hospital's first open house since the start of COVID-19 pandemic, according to a PRH news release.

This program has been in the works for more than a year, gaining accreditation in May 2021, according to past Daily News reporting. The center will provide physician residents a clinical space to learn and practice patient care, according to the release. Physician residents are medical professionals who graduated from medical school and are continuing their education to complete training and choose a specialty, the release stated.

Stephen Hall, a local family medicine physician, will serve as the program's director, according in the release. The three-year family medicine program will welcome its first physician residents in the summer of 2023, according to the release. The program will add as many as three physicians every year, anticipating a total of nine physician residents by 2026.

Construction of the Family Medicine Residency Center was funded fully through philanthropy, the release said. The $7.6 million project was financed by the Next Era of Excellence, a fundraising campaign managed by the hospital, and volunteer campaign cabinet members such as Mayor Glenn Johnson and fourth-generation farmer Wayne Druffel. Funding for the center will also support the Pullman Regional Hospital Orthopedic Center of Excellence

"It is common for residents to stay and practice in the same communities of their residency program," Hall said in the release. "Residency programs support more access to primary care today, and they create a recruitment and retention opportunity for our future. Rural communities, like ours, struggle with having enough primary care doctors. This program solves both current needs and future needs to provide better access to primary care."

More information about the Family Medicine Residency Center is available at medicine.wsu.edu/gme/fm-pullman or pullmanregional.org/residency-program.

Pearce can be reached at epearce@dnews.com or on Twitter @Emily_A_Pearce.