AccessHealth will sponsor an osteopathic family practice residency program for up to twelve residents. Accreditation oversight and additional educational resources will be supported by the Mountain State Osteopathic Postdoctoral Training Institutions, Inc. (MSOPTI), a respected training consortium anchored by the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine (WVSOM).

Regional Community Health Center Secures Federal Teaching Grant

Community Health Systems dba AccessHealth, a federally qualified health center in Beckley, W.Va., is one of 11 medical facilities nationwide that have been designated as new federal Teaching Health Centers.

The 11 selected centers will support primary care residency training in community-based settings. The centers were established under the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education program, a 5-year program that will support an increased number of primary care medical and dental residents trained in community-based settings across the country through funds made available through the Affordable Care Act.

AccessHealth will sponsor an osteopathic family practice residency program for up to twelve residents. Accreditation oversight and additional educational resources will be supported by the Mountain State Osteopathic Postdoctoral Training Institutions, Inc. (MSOPTI), a respected training consortium anchored by the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine (WVSOM).

"WVSOM has been partnering with AccessHealth to help train our third and fourth year students for many years," stated Michael Adelman, D.O., WVSOM President. "I am excited to now have the opportunity to work with this outstanding organization, to develop one of the first Family Practice Residency Programs based in a Teaching Health Center."

AccessHealth employs 48 primary care providers specializing in family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics and obstetrics/gynecology at 12 rural practice sites in southern West Virginia.

"We are happy to be one of eleven centers nationally and the only one in West Virginia to be awarded this Teaching Health Center residency training opportunity," said Rodney Fink, D.O., Chief Medical Officer at Community Health Systems.

"Evidence has shown that resident physicians who train in health center settings are nearly three times as likely to practice in underserved settings after graduation. They are 3.4 times as likely to work in a health center, when compared to residents who did not train in health centers."

According to Health & Human Service Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, AccessHealth and the 10 other Teaching Health Centers will receive grants totaling $1.9 million to cover costs of the first three months of the program. The centers are designed to help address the need to train primary care physicians and dentists in our nation's communities. The other 10 centers are located in California, Idaho, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Montana, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington.

Future funding will allow the Teaching Health Centers to seek additional primary care residents through the American Osteopathic Association Match as well as the National Resident Matching program. They will train 50 additional resident full-time equivalents beginning in July 2011.

 "The Teaching Health Center program is an integral part of our mission to strengthen the nation's primary care workforce and ensure that all Americans have adequate access to care," said Secretary Sebelius in a Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) press release . HRSA will administer the program.

AccessHealth will receive up to five years of ongoing support for the costs associated with training primary care physicians. Eligible Teaching Health Centers are community-based ambulatory patient care centers that operate a primary care residency program, including federally-qualified health centers; community mental health centers; rural health clinics; health centers operated by the Indian Health Service, an Indian tribe or tribal organization; and entities receiving funds under Title X of the Public Health Service Act.