Changes are coming to the Wichita Falls Family Medicine Residency Program after 2016 bought public negotiations between the program and United Regional Healthcare System.
In May, the hospital announced plans to phase out its partnership with the residency program, which trains doctors with the supervision of practicing physicians and provides care to many low-income residents around the area.
A month later, officials with United Regional announced they would be going forward with discussion about joining forces with the University of North Texas and the Community Health Center to maintain and elevate the residency program.
Tuesday in a press release, the WFFMRP confirmed those plans.
“We at the residency are already seeing many of the benefits of the changes that have started,” stated Ahmed Mattar, MD, Program Director at the Wichita Falls Family Medicine Residency Program. “Our new affiliation with University of North Texas Health Science Center, a true primary care supporting medical school, has paid dividends in the areas of faculty development and assistance with the tedious regulations of graduate medical education. Our new partners at the Community Healthcare Center have gone out of their way to help us with the administrative tasks of the program while making genuine plans to improve the training of our bright residents. United Regional Health Care System (United Regional), our main training hospital, has been very supportive of any and all efforts to improve the quality of education of the residents and the residency. We are proud to work at and serve the patients of United Regional and the community.”
The residency program will begin officially partnering with Community Healthcare Center on January 1, 2017. The program will also continue to have resident physicians actively treating patients at United Regional.
The press release states the final details of these changes are awaiting a few approvals from resource and accreditation entities. Those approvals are expected by April 2017, after which another announcement of the project’s successful full implementation will be made.
The full press release is attached.
