Mercy / Methodist Hospital of Sacramento Family Practice Residency Program

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the strengths of this residency program?

This program is based in a system which values excellence and for which the "quality impact" is #1 in the support justification for the residency. Other strengths include the rapidly growing maternal, child and geriatric patient populations, and the economic and cultural diversity of the region.  It is significant to point out that the mission statement of  Mercy Healthcare Sacramento (MHS) supports the priority for providing care to the underserved. 

In this rapidly evolving healthcare environment, it is virtually impossible to predict what the economics of healthcare payment will look like in the foreseeable future. A significant advantage to residents trained in this program will be an exposure to essentially every form of healthcare payor currently operating in California. Our patient population includes individuals whose costs are borne by "fee for service", narrow scope managed care, multiple public assistance programs, CHAMPUS, and every possible permutation of capitation and discounted fee for service programs. Whatever the future holds for the economics of healthcare delivery, residents in this program will have experienced it.
See " Why Choose Us? " for more specific strengths of our program.

What are the weaknesses of this program?

Being in a rapidly changing and evolving healthcare environment like the Sacramento area, we face the challenge of almost continuous curriculum development and evolution. Consequently, resident input to enhance and develop the curriculum is extremely important. We seek residents who are self-motivated learners, anxious to take advantage of an extremely broad base of educational resources provided in an environment of flexibility and support, and designed to maximize the educational benefit to each participant. Family practice is a dynamic specialty demanding an adaptive curriculum to meet the diverse needs of individual residents and the changing landscape of community health priorities.

One additional "weakness" of the program is the fact that there are three family practice residencies in the Sacramento area. This has been shown to lend a significant potential for confusion among the three programs, although each is clearly designed to attract very different applicant populations. The program based at the UCD Med Center is a university based family practice residency.  The family practice residency at Sutter is a good example of a program designed to train physicians for practice in an environment heavily leveraged by managed care. CHW supports a community program for residents whose career goals include community practice and the care of culturally and economically diverse populations.

Why establish a residency at Methodist Hospital?

The establishment of a family practice residency program is part of the overall strategy of CHW to improve the quality of care provided in its member institutions. As an organization, CHW recognizes the positive impact on patient care quality that results from Graduate Medical Education activities in the institution. Methodist Hospital was selected as the first institution within CHW to sponsor a family practice residency for a number of compelling reasons. Methodist is a hospital with a history of community service, and a primary care orientation. Methodist Hospital has recently completed a multi-million dollar Family Birthing Center including state-of-the-art labor and delivery, isolation units for obstetrical patients with communicable diseases, and the region’s newest intensive care nursery. The hospital is completed a multi-million dollar upgrade of its main physical plant to convert approximately 50% of inpatient beds to critical care capacity, upgrade the imaging and diagnostic facilities of the institution, and completed a major expansion of the emergency department.

Methodist Hospital was also selected because it is in the center of a rapidly growing area badly in need of primary care physicians. The most rapidly growing patient populations include young families and elderly adults. The large population of underserved individuals is substantially benefited by the establishment of the residency’s Family Practice Center, one of the few local access points to the healthcare system.

What is the educational philosophy of this residency?

The basic educational philosophy of this program is excellence in post-graduate medical education. Rather than being designed to meet minimum accreditation criteria, the curriculum of the MHS Family Practice Residency was constructed using the RAP "criteria for excellence" prepared by the American Academy of Family Physicians as a foundation for training in each cognitive domain. In addition, it is the personal philosophy of the program director that resident physicians "learn best when conscious". Consequently, this program includes mechanisms to carefully guard the physical and emotional energy of each resident to maximize their capacity to take advantage of the broad resources for learning in the curriculum.

Hospitals across the country are suffering extreme economic pressures, what is the assurance that Methodist Hospital remains economically healthy in the future?

Methodist Hospital is one of the participating institutions within Catholic Healthcare West. CHW has five hospitals in the Sacramento area: Mercy General Hospital in the downtown, Mercy San Juan Hospital and Mercy American River in the north area, Mercy Folsom in the east county, and Methodist Hospital in the southern suburbs. In addition, CHW includes affiliated hospitals like Woodland and Grass Valley.

Methodist Hospital itself is located at the junction of two unique economic communities. It is immediately adjacent to Elk Grove, a rapidly growing and relatively affluent community which provides a strong economic base to the hospital. In addition, in accordance with its mission of service to the poor, Methodist Hospital is located immediately adjacent to an economically disadvantaged community known as Meadowview. Meadowview is one of the poorest regions in the state, with healthcare indicators reminiscent of third world countries.

CHW includes multiple hospitals in the states of California, Arizona, and Nevada. It is, in fact, the largest single hospital system in the Western US. CHW is an economically strong organization, hence its capacity to support regional construction projects at a time when other hospitals are struggling for economic survival.

What is the cultural profile of Methodist Hospital’s service population?

Methodist Hospital, and hence the main hospital for the residency program, serves an ethically, culturally, and economically diverse population. Our patients represent 50 major cultural groups and more than 12 major languages. The hospital provides broad based interpreter support. It is also the pivotal hospital within the Greater Meadowview Area Council. The Council is a collaboration of local ethnic and cultural special interest groups, who have joined collaboratively to improve the overall quality of life in the southern suburbs. Using what is called the Healthily Community Strategy, (similar to Community Oriented Primary Care, but expanded to include such public services as safety, transportation, education, and community development), Methodist Hospital is broadly represented in this coalition, and residents will have multiple opportunities to interact intimately with the community through this vehicle.

What are the key educational resources supporting this training program?

As a community residency program, the most significant educational resource supporting this program is the medical staff at Methodist and Mercy General Hospitals. These medical staffs are characterized by young residency trained physicians with an overt interest in supporting medical education as a vehicle to enhance the quality of patient care. The medical staffs at each hospital includes representatives from every major medical and surgical specialty and sub-specialty, but remains dominated by the primary care specialties, especially family practice. In addition to teaching residents, the bulk of the medical staffs also participate in student clerkships and other trainees rotating through their offices and the hospital.

Another primary educational resource is the medical campus of Methodist Hospital. In addition to the inpatient facility, applicants will notice that we are surrounded by multiple professional office buildings immediately adjacent to the hospital. It is in these offices that the bulk of the medical staff practice, and the proximity not only enhances their responsiveness to resident needs, but makes the facilities of their individual offices available for training as well. The Mercy Family Health Center is likewise immediately adjacent to the hospital, which is a significant convenience for residents. Bruceville Terrace, one of the area’s premier extended care facilities is just across the back parking lot. Bruceville Terrace includes the full spectrum of extended care from custodial services to acute rehabilitation facilities. Just across the street and nearing completion, is a Mercy affiliated senior housing facility providing assisted living resources to our geriatric population.

CHW is a Catholic organization. Does that impact the residents’ experience in women’s health?

As part of a Catholic organization, Methodist Hospital does not provide abortion services, and the residency does not include pregnancy termination as one of the procedures of the core curriculum. However, CHW takes a pastoral approach to the issue of family planning, and leaves decisions regarding contraception and sterilization to the combined judgment of patient and physician. Our curriculum supports that perspective.