The Osteopathic Medical Education Consortium of Oklahoma (OMECO) requests funding for an existing Family Medicine Residency program located at Cherokee Nation in Tahlequah, the county seat of Cherokee County, Oklahoma. Cherokee County is a Medically Underserved Area with an Index Score of 54.3. OMECO and Cherokee Nation are requesting 96 FTE residents, with 24 FTE residents per year for four (4) years. Since its initial accreditation in 2019, the Cherokee Nation Family Medicine Residency Program has been training physicians to provide a full range of primary care to various rural and underserved communities. Housed at Cherokee Nation’s Outpatient Healthcare Center (CNOHC) in Tahlequah, this 3-year Post Graduate Training Program’s curriculum emphasizes the development of osteopathic family medicine competencies by recognizing the importance of ambulatory care and interactions with patients, families, and staff. In addition to CNOHC, Cherokee Nation Health Services operates W.W. Hastings Hospital (CN WWH). CN WWH is licensed for sixty (60) beds and includes a six (6) bed intensive care unit. Other services include labor and delivery and a newborn nursery. The patient population includes newborns, adolescents, and adults with an equal mix of both genders. Patients are admitted with a wide a variety of disease processes that involve the multiple disciplines. The patient volumes at this site are adequate to meet the inpatient and emergency medicine patient encounter requirements. The family medicine residency hospitalist and maternity/OB services at this site are of educational importance. The Inpatient Medicine Teaching Service (IMTS) is a twenty-four (24) hour hospitalist service that accepts established and unassigned patients to the observation unit, inpatient general medical floor, and intensive care unit (ICU). On this service, the residents are supervised by family medicine residency faculty. Patients present with a wide variety of concern
s and often cases involve highly complex combinations of pathology requiring a significant level of care coordination. Residents are required to complete one-month rotations on this service. The residents complete a total of six (6) months on the IMTS at progressive levels of responsibility throughout their training.