New batch of residents start Santa Rosa medical training

A Santa Rosa-based program has become one of the most popular physician training grounds in the country, attracting 60 percent of the estimated 1,100 medical school graduates who each year apply for family practice residencies in the United States.

This week, 12 of the roughly 700 applicants started their three-year journey at the new Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital, which hosts the Santa Rosa Family Medicine Residency program, one of 490 such programs for family practice doctors in the country.

PDF: Residency Class of 2018

'We're doing something right,' said Jeff Haney, director of the Santa Rosa-based residency program. 'We have a really broad-based education that focuses on how to effectively take care of patients in the hospital, in the clinic and outside those walls in the community.'

Haney, a graduate of the program himself, said the three-year track, which started as a two-year residency in 1938, is known for treating upcoming doctors with dignity, respect and patience — all important aspects of family medicine, and key to developing good bedside manner and reducing burnout.

'We focus energy on having the concept of humanism in what we do,' he said. 'We need to train doctors at how to take care of themselves, each other and to have some semblance of personhood.'

Though primarily based at the new Sutter hospital, the residency program receives support from a number of local health care providers and the county Department of Health Services. For example, Kaiser Permanente and Santa Rosa Community Health Centers provide physician education and rotations for the residents, who divide their time between Sutter's hospital, Kaiser and community clinics in Santa Rosa.

Last year, Kaiser Permanente launched its own local family medicine residency program with six first-year residents. The new program is aimed at addressing the shortage of primary care physicians.

About one-third of graduates from the Santa Rosa Family Medicine Residency stay in the area once their residencies are completed.

The new round of residents come from medical schools throughout the country, including UCSF; UC Davis; Stanford University; UCLA; University of Southern California; Rutgers University; University of Chicago; University of Vermont; Western University; and University of Iowa.