Project Title: Planning and Development of a Rural Residency Training Track in Willmar, Minnesota (WillmarRTT) Eligible Entity Type - Graduate medical education consortium. Project Director Contact Information: Shailendra Prasad; 612-624-9082; shailey@umn.edu Residency Program Director: Thomas Satre; 320-240-3184; satret@centracare.com Residency Specialty & Type: Family Medicine 1-2 RTT Sponsoring Institution: CentraCare St. Cloud Family Medicine Residency Program (SCFMR) Rural Target Area(s): Kandiyohi County, MN Funding Amount Requested: $ 749,970 Period of Performance: 8/1/22 – 7/31/25 Program Sustainability Option: Option 1, 3, and 4 Projected Number of Residents: 2 per year for a 2-2-2 model Expected ACGME Accreditation: April 2024 Residency Matriculation Dates: July 1, 2025 Names and Types of Partners: RTT site – Carris Health, Willmar, MN; Sponsoring Program- University of Minnesota/CentraCare St. Cloud Family Medicine Residency program; Academic Sponsor - University of Minnesota, Dept. of Family Medicine and Community Health (DFMCH). The purpose of the WillmarRTT is to plan and develop a Family Medicine Rural Training Track (RTT) in Willmar, MN, increasing the number of primary care physicians who train in a rural area thereby expanding the primary care workforce to improve healthcare in underserved rural areas. Project goals are to 1) plan and develop a new Family Medicine RTT at Carris Health (CH) in Willmar, MN in partnership with St. Cloud Family Medicine Residency Program (SCFMR) that can host at least two residents per year, and 2) ensure financial, curricular and structural viability for the RTT to maintain an ongoing successful program long after the grant period ends. Major objectives are to 1) build on the existing partnership between DFMCH and CentraCare to ensure a robust organizational and educational base for an ACGME accredited RTT at CH, develop a curriculum for community oriented Family Medicine RTT that e
nhances primary healthcare delivery in rural areas drawing on experience from the national RTT Collaborative, and the educational experiences of Department of Family Medicine and Community Health (DFMCH) and the St. Cloud Family Medicine residency program, and recruit residents for the WillmarRTT, 2) ensure appropriate ongoing funding for the RTT for continued functioning of the RTT, 3) Develop a graduate tracking plan for the WillmarRTT, and 4) learn from the experience of setting up an RTT in Minnesota in order to encourage and develop other RTT programs in Minnesota. The project will be based in Willmar, in rural Kandiyohi County, MN, and serve populations in the surrounding counties of Pope, Swift, Chippewa, Renville, Redwood, and Meeker. The partnership between academia (DFMCH) and a rural oriented health care system, CentraCare, that houses both SCFMR and CH, will build on existing academic partnerships in creating a new Family Medicine RTT. The clinical sites for the RTT include two hospitals in Willmar (Rice Memorial Hospital) and Redwood Falls (Redwood Hospital) and the 13 outpatient facilities under CH. We will employ rigorous and transformative educational methods to achieve these objectives, drawing on the resources of UMN, employing telehealth and other innovative tools in teaching and care delivery. The RTT will recruit medical students from across the US interested in rural care. We will also build on the current educational experience of the Rural Physician Associates Program (RPAP), at Willmar, MN. Our primary measure of success will be graduates of the RTT functioning as rural primary care physicians in Minnesota and across the US. At the project’s conclusion, WillmarRTT will be on a sound financial, educational, and structural platform with its first residents in place and prepared to continue training rural primary care physicians on an ongoing basis.