Program Information

1. General Program Information
2. Curriculum
3. Application Process

VISIT OUR INSTAGRAM PAGE!

Our Residency Program

Our Family Medicine Residency Program is community-oriented, full-spectrum, and operated by an organization dedicated to primary care. Most of Community Health Care’s family physicians care for patients in-clinic, at local hospitals and deliver babies. What you learn at CHC, you can practice here for the rest of your career – as well as in other underserved areas or rural communities that need full-spectrum family doctors.

Community Health Care has focused on primary care for nearly 50 years by providing medical, dental, pharmacy and behavioral health services to our patients. In 2014, CHC began training the next generation of family physicians as an integral part of our mission. We are clinic-based and are not run by a hospital. Our focus is to provide comprehensive skills necessary for family physicians serving in the complex setting of the country’s health care safety net.

Our state-of-the-art building is located in the community it serves near downtown Tacoma, Washington, an integral city here in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. Inpatient rotations are at St. Joseph’s Medical Center and Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital, where CHC physicians care for adults and children, as well as deliver babies. We have affiliations with both hospital outpatient networks and private physicians in the community to provide additional didactics and block rotations, including surgery, dermatology, sports medicine, geriatrics, and cardiology.

Benefits

• Stipend
  First-year resident: $59,971.08
• Time Off
  20 days of paid time off (PTO) in each year of residency.
• Insurance
  Insurance is provided. Residents are responsible for a small portion of medical, dental, long term and short term disability premiums.
• Meal Stipend
  $75 per month
• Malpractice Insurance
  Malpractice insurance is provided.
• CME Allowance
  $ 900 per annum
  3 days of leave

Partners

Curriculum

Family medicine residents gain proficiency in a wide range of settings, including Community Health Care’s Hilltop Regional Health Center, which was built specifically for our residency’s needs. At this center, residents are trained in the best way to serve the unique needs of health center patients. Caring for our patients provides a broad range of experience with complex medical issues, age ranges, and prenatal care. Our focus is on serving a diverse, underserved urban population with a key approach to community-based care.

Residents are primarily based at our Hilltop clinic, but second and third-year residents also have the opportunity to work at our other neighborhood clinics to develop experiences with pediatric and obstetric patients.

Inpatient adult and obstetric training occur at St. Joseph Hospital, allowing Community Health Care’s residents to regularly learn from a variety of specialties. The obstetric service at St. Joseph Hospital is robust with numbers. Pediatric inpatient training occurs at Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital directly from pediatric hospitalists who are expert in training family medicine physicians.

What makes CHC’s residency unique? 

• Residents gain experience in community-based medicine by working in the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department’s STI clinic. Preceptors are trained in providing “resident-centered” learning, giving the residents the opportunity to ask clinical questions in order to gain the most out of their in-clinic experiences.
• A high volume of obstetric patients and vaginal deliveries.
• Osteopathic manipulation therapy is integrated into continuity clinics.
• CHC’s Hilltop-based rheumatologist, ophthalmologist, and HIV specialists all dedicate time to teaching our residents while serving our patients. These specialists have a regular presence in our primary care clinic and are readily available for “curbside” consultations if needed.
• Residents receive training in our dental clinic to better understand the role oral health plays in primary care.
• Academic half-day sessions focus on the latest advances in adult education, including active learning with discussions and hands-on demonstrations.
• Besides the group of primary faculty and preceptors who frequently teach residents, CHC has a call group comprised of family physicians who work in our neighborhood clinics. Residents learn directly from family physicians who are “walking the walk” of serving an underserved population with full-spectrum family medicine.

Application Process

Applications are available in late summer of each year through the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) for both MD and DO applicants. We only accept applications submitted through the ERAS system.

Faculty review all completed applications to select candidates for interview. Applicants invited to interview will be notified directly by the program. Interview dates are Tuesday afternoons and Thursday mornings held in October through December. Interviews can be in-person or virtual.

Please direct any questions regarding the application and interview process to fmresidency@commhealth.org or (253)442-8800.