A medical training program that helps reduce the shortage of family medicine physicians in Arizona is expanding to the Valleywise Community Health Center – South Central.
The Creighton University Arizona Health Education Alliance Family Medicine Residency Program will start seeing patients in the underserved area of south Phoenix with a special commitment to underinsured, low-income and medically underserved persons.
Family medicine residents will work under the guidance of attending physicians at the clinic, 33 W. Tamarisk St. The primary care clinic offers a range of outpatient services, including pediatrics, obstetrics and family medicine.
The opening follows months of revamping the clinic, part of Valleywise Health’s network of 12 neighborhood health clinics.
Barbara Harding, Senior Vice President of Ambulatory Care Services at Valleywise, said the Creighton Alliance residency program will provide crucial primary care to the south Phoenix area. In addition, Harding said, the residency brings in new physicians who are more likely to stay and live in the community for years to come.
Initially, eight second-year residents will work at the clinic; the total will be 24 first, second and third-year residents beginning next year.
“This is part of our endeavor to ensure we have strong and well-trained professionals to address the needs of a growing community,” Harding said. “We are committed to ensuring all individuals get access to good health care, including those who are low-income, underinsured and disabled in our community.”
The program will help to ease a primary care physician shortage. The Health Resources and Services Administration projects Arizona will need 1,941 additional primary care physicians by 2030, a 50 percent increase compared to 2010 primary care physician needs.
The family residency program, which originally began at Dignity Health St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, is now part of the Creighton University Arizona Health Education Alliance. The Creighton Alliance is a unique partnership that includes Creighton University, Dignity Health St. Joseph’s, Valleywise Health and District Medical Group.