Friday, May 9, 2025
5/9/2025
Rural Residency Planning and Development Program - Eligible Entity Type: Montana Family Medicine Residency (MFMR), a community-based family medicine residency, is a GME consortium. Project Director Contact Information: Garth Brand, MD Garth.bra@riverstonehealth.org Residency PD Contact Information: Garth Brand, MD Garth.bra@riverstonehealth.org Residency Specialty & Type: Family Medicine 1-2 RTT Sponsoring Institution: Montana Family Medicine Residency Rural Target Area: Eastern Montana Funding Amount Requested: $750,000 Program Sustainability Option: Option 3 Projected Number of Residents: 6 Expected ACGME Accreditation and Residency Matriculation Dates: January 1, 2025, and July 1, 2025 Brief Overview: Eastern Montana is a rural paradise for ranchers but has minimal access to medical care due to the vast geographic expanse (MT forelands) and limited economic development. Data from the 2020 Montana Primary Care Office show there are 13 counties without a primary care physician in Montana, and nine are in the eastern region, which puts additional pressure on regional referral areas (including Miles City and Billings) to care for this vast rural population. Residents of these underserved counties are driving between 36 to 110 miles to receive health care. Because these populations are being affected by worse health outcomes due to lack of primary care, higher maternal mortality due to lack of trained obstetric providers, and advanced disease due to lack of preventative care, residency training must be expanded into Eastern Montana. Family Medicine is the only specialty that is entirely suited to step into a rural community and adapt to the needs of that community with full-spectrum total patient care. Educating physicians in these areas is a critical element of the pipeline to fill current and future gaps in the workforce. 30% of current physicians across the state are over 60 years old, creating a pending catastrophe if we do not build for the future now. Eastern Montana has a population density ranging from 1-20 people per square mile, and the medicine practiced here has been called frontier medicine; thus, we are creating a Frontier Training Track based in a regional referral center, with a population of around 8,500, but a medical system that cares for eight surrounding counties. MFMR plans to create a 1-2 Rural (Frontier) Training Track. Residents will spend their first year based in Billings at MFMR and then spend their next two years of training in Miles City. They will have a continuity clinic at One Health, a federally qualified health center (FQHC), and rotate at Holy Rosary Hospital and Billings Clinic Miles City for hospital and clinic-based rotations. The RTT structure is similar to MFMR being housed in a FQHC and working closely with two community-based healthcare networks. Target patient population includes rural/underserved patients across eastern Montana, including working with the Native American tribes and Veterans. MFMR has always focused on underserved and vulnerable patient populations, which will continue with the rural training track. By partnering with One Health, a regional FQHC, we can ensure residents continue to have significant clinical exposure to underserved patients in a FQHC setting at the rural site. MFMR has existing partnerships for resident training at the Montana VA and IHS, and plan to expand this work with the RTT to give residents excellent training with these populations. MFMR was recently awarded a Teaching Health Center (THC) expansion award with HRSA, which shows MFMR’s commitment to growing future physicians for rural practice, and this RRPD grant will help continue to build on this commitment. The RRPD grant will help develop a sustainable training track to provide high-quality care for the rural population of Eastern Montana and develop an essential pipeline of physicians to this region.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).