Northern California Medical Education Program

The Northern California Medical Education Program will be a critical step needed to address the systemic access to care issues in rural counties north of Sacramento and up to the Oregon border. While this program is created to support rural counties, clinical experiences will mostly be in cities that are not considered rural, such as Redding, Chico and Oroville. Butte-Glenn Medical Society will establish the Northern California Medical Education Program in January 2020 in the following ways:

• Support the creation of residency programs in the region

• Coordinate medical student rotations

• Promote the medical student rotation and residency program experience in the region

• Inspire middle school and high school students to pursue medicine

• Coordinate pre-medical student experiences in local clinical settings

• Establish and strengthen the pipeline to medicine and psychology in the region

• Provide the hub for all residents and medical students in the area

• Create CME medical education lectures.

Creating Residency Programs

In the summer of 2019, Butte-Glenn Medical Society established a Residency Task Force and started collaborating with UC Davis. The UC Davis COMPADRE program launched at the same time. The Residency Task Force includes physicians and behavioral health leaders from both Butte-Glenn Medical Society and North Valley Medical Association in Redding. The Residency Task Force believes that

On November 14, 2019, UC Davis School of Medicine leaders and nascent Psychiatry Residency program leaders conducted site visits in Oroville and Chico. This Psychiatry Residency program will be with Butte County Behavioral Health and Oroville Hospital, and has already garnered a $900,000 plus grant from Camp Fire Recovery funds. Butte-Glenn Medical Society and all our partners in the Residency Task Force support the creation of this Psychiatry Residency Program which will help address critical mental health and access to care needs. Enloe Medical Center also met with UC Davis leaders.

Please note that we are seeking more medical schools to establish residency and student rotations in our area. Throughout Northern California, we estimate that 30 to 60 residents will be needed to address the looming crisis of a physician shortage in our region. Internal Medicine, Family Medicine, Psychiatry and other residency programs will help our communities tremendously.

If a medical school wants to explore clinical site locations, or you're a physician that can offer clinical experiences, please contact Butte-Glenn Medical Society's Executive Director, Kristy Bird MaKieve, at bgmsed@gmail.com. We are excited to hear that students from California Northstate University College of Medicine began rotations at Oroville Hospital and look forward to hearing about more.

UC Davis established a Family Medicine program at Shasta Community Health Center in Redding and applications from residents far exceeds spots available.

Discussions continue with state and federal legislators as well as Physicians for a Healthy California and health insurance partners in January 2020 as we seek funding to encourage more programs. Stay tuned for more details as the program officially launches on February 19, 2020 at the Butte-Glenn Medical Society Annual Membership Dinner.

With Gratitude

The Northern California Medical Education Program is sponsored by California Health & Wellness, the Butte-Glenn Medical Society and Physicians for a Healthy California. We are grateful to all physicians who are enthusiastic about teaching medicine and recruiting students and residents to our communities.