Rural Residency Planning and Development Program - Applicant Name: The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education (TWCGME) Project Director (PD): Brian Ebersole, VP Academic Affairs, Assoc. DIO, Chief Operations Officer Education Project Director Contact Info: 501 S. Washington Avenue, Scranton, PA 18505 Email/Phone/Fax of PD: ebersoleb@thewrightcenter.org 570.343.2383x1674 Web Site Address: www.thewrightcenter.org Residency Program Director Contact Info: Donald Rumbaugh, MD DRumbaugh@primary-health.net 724.735.4241 Eligible Entity Type: Rural community-based ambulatory patient care center Program Pathway: 1. General primary care and high-need specialty Residency Specialty: Family Medicine Residency Format: Rural residency program (non-RTP) Sponsoring Institution: The Wright Center for GME, Scranton, PA 18505 ACGME Sponsor Code: 8004100868 Rural Target Area: Mercer County, PA Funds Requested: $750,000 Program Sustainability Option: 6A Projected Number of Residents: 12 (4-4-4) Expected ACGME Accreditation: July, 2028 Expected Matriculation: 7/1/2029 Funding priority: None List of recent HRSA awards: P13RH42206-RRPD Wayne CHC, T9BHP49011-THC PD Pediatrics, T9BHP49012-THC PD Pediatric, Dentistry, T9BHP49045-THC PD OB-GYN, T9BHP45345-THC PD Family Medicine, T91HP21546-THCGME Internal Medicine, T91HP39434-THCGME Geriatrics, T91HP25793-THCGME National Network Family Medicine, T91HP25794-THCGME Family Medicine, T91HP39435-THCGME Psychiatry, GA1RH33559-RCORP-Implementation, D88HP37562-Postdoctoral Training Dentistry, T5CHP52048-PCTE Language Disability, TA2HP48951-PCTE Mental Behavioral Health, T0BHP30028-PCTE Patient-centered Medical Home Care, G26RH40099-RCORP-Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome I, G26RH49918-RCORP-Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome 2 Project Overview: For this rural family medicine residency, The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education (TWCGME) is partnering with Mercer County Pennsylvania’s Primary Health Network (PHN) and Allegheny Health Network’s (AHN) Grove City Hospital. This geographic HPSA and MUA designated rural county is largely impoverished and struggling with obesity, physical inactivity, mental health and substance use disorders. The purpose of The Wright Center for GME Primary Health Network Family Medicine Residency Program is to bring the benefits of residency training programs to a rural section of western Pennsylvania, providing quality, FQHC-based, rural residency training to future family medicine physicians and doing so while scaling costs to remain sustainable as a Teaching Health Center program. Specific measurable objectives and expected outcomes include; 1) submitting the ACGME application for the new rural residency program by December 15, 2026; 2) establishing a new ACGME-accredited residency program by July 31, 2028; 3) co-creating a multi-stream funding sustainability plan utilizing responsibility center management (RCM) budgeting and resource allocation that maximizes GME-SNC strategies for required rotations aligned with funding compliance as needed; 4) begin training the first resident class no later than academic year, 2029. Furthermore, this project will address the population health needs of the communities served by the residency program through the expansion of robust, comprehensive family medicine (full scope of FM practice) care and access for Mercer County, PA and the broader community. The proposed project will be accomplished by the early, continual, and consistent engagement of rural system leadership and long-time rural physicians under the direction and with the support of the leadership of TWCGME whose expertise in this domain has previously resulted in the country’s only ACGME-accredited, multi-state family medicine residency program consortium and four decades of multi-stream funding and consortium scheduling work. Additional Congressional Districts: PA-008, PA-016
