Mission Statement:
Our mission is to train intellectually curious, compassionate, and competent family medicine physicians committed to caring for the rural underserved.
We aim to do this by:
- Providing comprehensive, full-scope training to residents to increase family medicine physicians practicing in rural underserved areas, especially in southeast Kansas.
- Training culturally competent physicians to address health disparities that negatively impact rural populations.
Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas
Department of Family Medicine & Community Health
University of Kansas Medical Center
The rural family medicine residency is a collaborative initiative between the University Of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC) in Kansas City, Kansas, and the Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas (CHC/SEK) in Pittsburg, Kansas.
By selecting this residency experience the learning and training environments will provide the best of two worlds; urban and rural. The PGY1 resident will be based at the KU academic medical center in Kansas City, Kansas. The curriculum will provide experience in an academic institution providing a solid foundation in preparation for the transition to the rural training in PGY2 and PGY3.
The primary residency site for PGY-2 and PGY-3 will be with the FQHC of CHC/SEK. All of the resources needed for this underserved rural community will be found under one roof along with the Residency Continuity Clinic. Residents will also train at Pittsburg’s Ascension Via Christi Hospital to learn care of the acute patient in a rural setting.
Unique benefits and features of the FQHC based residency experience include but are not limited to:
- Learning to manage complex care patients and access specialty care and consultation from a rural environment.
- Being the only residency in the community eliminates competition for procedures and experiences as well as focused support and attention from faculty.
- Access to a multidisciplinary team on site to immediately address your patients’ needs may include but not be limited to such services as; dental, behavioral health, wellness, diagnostics, population health, community health worker and care management to name some.
- CHC/SEK is actively engaged with schools and jails within the region to provide services and providers on site in these locations.
- A very robust menu of addiction treatment services are in place and expanding.
Training Sites
University of Kansas Medical Center
Kansas City, KS
Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas
Pittsburg, KS
Ascension Via Christi Hospital
Pittsburg, KS
Our residents will spend their first year in Kansas City, training in highly complex and acute patients at the urban academic medical center. For their second and third years, residents will train in Pittsburg, Kansas – a two-hour drive due south of Kansas City.
The main residency site is the FQHC of CHC-SEK, which brings all the resources needed for this underserved, rural community under one roof. Residents will also train at Pittsburg’s Ascension Via Christi Hospital to learn care for the acute patient in a rural setting.
PGY1 residents benefit from the depth and breadth of our program, its faculty, and training sites. PGY2 and PGY3 residents benefit from training in a truly rural setting of a well-established FQHC at CHC/SEK, where they will have access to a multidisciplinary team.
We believe this is a truly unique program for future family medicine physicians planning to practice in rural areas, while offering the benefits of an urban academic center and the intimacy of the rural setting that many enjoy.
