Consortium to take over residency program

<p>Sonoma County's 70-year-old training program for doctors will be switched from Sutter Health to a consortium of medical service providers under a deal approved Tuesday by county supervisors.</p><p>The transfer of the Family Medicine Residency Program reflects the continuing retreat by Sutter Health of Sacramento from being the sole provider of publicly guaranteed health services in Sonoma County.</p><p>Sutter Medical Center CEO Mike Cohill said demographic shifts in patients as well as difficulty in maintaining adequate Medicare reimbursements made it apparent that Sutter could no longer retain primary responsibility for the program. Each year, about three dozen medical school graduates are enrolled for hands-on training.</p><p>"The consortium structure will not only provide a broader base of financial support, but will also offer a richer, more diverse learning experience for physicians," Cohill said.</p><p>Sutter will remain the primary funder, contributing about $4 million annually, while Kaiser Permanente will commit another $2.7 million each year.</p><p>Under the new arrangement, doctors in the training program will work at both Kaiser and Sutter hospitals, will rotate shifts through Memorial Hospital's trauma center and will gain primary care experience at the Southwest Community Health Clinic.</p><p>Previously, all hospital training occurred at Sutter Medical Center and primary care experience was gained at a family practice center that Sutter has since turned over to the Southwest clinic.</p><p>Since 1936, the residency program has graduated about 570 physicians, about half of whom remained in the county to practice medicine, according to county health services director Rita Scardaci. About 150 family physicians in current practice are graduates of the program, she said.</p><p>"The residency program is the cornerstone" of the Health Care Access Agreement with Sutter, said Supervisor Tim Smith. "This ensures a long and healthy life for the program. I don't even want to think about the loss of this program."</p><p>Sutter's move to bow out of sole responsibility for the residency program began in April 2006, well before the Sacramento-based health corporation announced its intention early in 2007 to shift most of its contractual county services to Memorial Hospital. Although that effort failed, most medical service experts felt that a change in the resident training sponsorship was inevitable because more doctors and patients were going to Kaiser and Sutter was losing money.</p><p>Cohill said the program was losing about $1.5 million annually. Larger financial losses on other medical services have prompted similar moves by Sutter to cut programs without violating terms of its agreement with the county.</p><p>Cohill said Kaiser will become a second major site for residency training when its hospital expansion is completed in 2011.</p><p>"It gets rid of the us-versus-them mentality that can affect sponsorship by one institution," said Dr. Colin Kopes-Kerr, residency program director. "It gives us flexibility at times of financial crisis to go from one partner or another for support."</p><p>The consortium will be governed by a 15-member board that will include representatives of Sutter Medical Center and Sutter Medical Foundation, Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and its Permanente Medical Group, the southwest clinic, Memorial Hospital, the University of California at San Francisco Medical Center and the county health department.</p><p>You can reach Staff Writer Bleys W. Rose at 521-5431 or bleys.rose@pressdemocrat.com.</p><p>Mike</p><p>Cohill</p><p>Sutter CEO says new deal will offer a more diverse learning experience for doctors.</p>