University regents consider new rural physician training program with CentraCare, would include Willmar area

MINNEAPOLIS

— Willmar could possibly be the positioning of a brand new rural coaching program being developed by CentraCare and the College of Minnesota.

The College’s Board of Regents mentioned the proposal with CentraCare and medical college leaders on the board assembly Thursday, in response to a College of Minnesota information launch.

The College, CentraCare and the Minnesota Division of Well being acquired a $750,000 federal grant earlier this yr to develop a rural residency program with the objective of accelerating the agricultural well being care workforce.

Regents are anticipated to take motion on the proposal at their February assembly.

Jakub Tolar, dean of the Medical Faculty and vice chairman for scientific affairs, together with Ken Holmen, president and CEO of CentraCare Well being, instructed regents about medical wants in rural Minnesota on the assembly.

There’s a rising scarcity of medical professionals in rural Minnesota, they mentioned. In consequence, Minnesotans in rural areas might even see restricted entry to high quality well being care and decreased providers at hospitals and clinics. Rural residents additionally are usually older and extra prone to critical well being circumstances.

Tolar and Holmen mentioned prospects for growing medical schooling alternatives in rural communities. CentraCare serves a broad space of southwestern, central and west central Minnesota.

Some prospects mentioned embody increasing residencies and scientific rotations inside CentraCare, and a regional campus primarily based in CentraCare amenities with U of M Medical Faculty coaching.

CentraCare and the College have had a collaborative residency program for greater than 25 years.

In an inner e-newsletter final fall, CentraCare instructed workers a Rural Residency Coaching Observe was deliberate, which might have residents coaching at CentraCare in St. Cloud for one yr and within the Willmar space for the remaining two years.

It may take three years to develop this system to accreditation.

Dr. Richard Wehseler was named the interim program director for the Rural Residency Coaching Observe within the Willmar space. He’s a household drugs doctor at CentraCare’s New London clinic.

“By coaching within the area, younger physicians will have the ability to combine into the communities and see firsthand the worth of dwelling and elevating a household in rural Minnesota,” Wehseler mentioned within the e-newsletter article.

Willmar’s medical group has a protracted historical past of involvement within the college’s Rural Doctor Affiliation Program, which brings third-year medical college students to coach in rural communities in Minnesota and western Wisconsin.

That program could be anticipated to proceed, in response to the e-newsletter, with the agricultural residency program as an addition.