URGENT: Training of Primary Care Doctors in Jeopardy
Local hospitals decline to train residents who serve underserved patients
By Russ Sondker
Residents being goofy as they learn how to care for infants using infant dummies
Community Health Care’s Family Medicine Residency was forced to close as of June 30, after Virginia Mason Franciscan Health abruptly terminated their affiliation agreement with the program in December 2025.
CHC is a federally qualified health center that serves low-income and predominately underserved communities. CHC’s family medicine residency is designed to train future primary care doctors to deliver compassionate care to this population.
CHC is an independent organization, and its residency necessitates a connection to a hospital to fulfill training requirements. Since its inception in 2014, CHC has had an agreement with Virginia Mason Franciscan Health to provide hospital-based training. In December 2025, VMFH gave notice they were ending this relationship without any reason beyond their own internal priorities. This left the residency without a viable ability to continue. Although MultiCare attempted to incorporate CHC’s residents, recently this organization also declined to train CHC’s residents.
This decision will greatly impact Pierce County and CHC. In 2025, CHC provided care to over more than 54,000 patients, 6,453 of them seen by residents. At St. Joseph specifically, our providers gave care to 1,618 patients, performing 600 labor and deliveries in addition to postpartum evaluations and newborn examinations. The residency has graduated 55 board-certified family physicians since its inception in 2014, most of which serve in the local area. With the current shortage of primary care physicians, the loss of this training pipeline will greatly impact our region – especially low-income and underserved communities.
2 of the Community Health Care residents holding the book they all had a hand in writing at the book launch party at Pt Defiance in 2024
“Our local community already has a difficult time accessing healthcare in a reasonable amount of time,” said Dr. Carri Jo Timmer, the program director for CHC’s Family Medicine program. “Who hasn’t heard a friend or family member complain about long wait times to access a primary care doctor? This announcement unfortunately worsens that reality.”
“We understand the challenges of healthcare organizations that stem from funding uncertainties, including recent changes at the federal level,” said Dr. Timmer. “Still, it’s disappointing to know that our partner of 50 years has chosen to focus on other priorities.”
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