Curriculum

Family medicine residents gain proficiency in a wide range of settings, including Community Health Care’s Hilltop Regional Health Center, which was built specifically for our residency’s needs. At this center, residents are trained in the best way to serve the unique needs of health center patients. Caring for our patients provides a broad range of experience with complex medical issues, age ranges, and prenatal care. Our focus is on serving a diverse, underserved urban population with a key approach to community-based care.

Residents are primarily based at our Hilltop clinic, but second and third-year residents also have the opportunity to work at our other neighborhood clinics to develop experiences with pediatric and obstetric patients.

Inpatient adult and obstetric training occur at St. Joseph Hospital, allowing Community Health Care’s residents to regularly learn from a variety of specialties. The obstetric service at St. Joseph Hospital is robust with numbers. Pediatric inpatient training occurs at Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital directly from pediatric hospitalists who are expert in training family medicine physicians.

What makes CHC’s residency unique? 

• Residents gain experience in community-based medicine by working in the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department’s STI clinic. Preceptors are trained in providing “resident-centered” learning, giving the residents the opportunity to ask clinical questions in order to gain the most out of their in-clinic experiences.
• A high volume of obstetric patients and vaginal deliveries.
• Osteopathic manipulation therapy is integrated into continuity clinics.
• CHC’s Hilltop-based rheumatologist, ophthalmologist, and HIV specialists all dedicate time to teaching our residents while serving our patients. These specialists have a regular presence in our primary care clinic and are readily available for “curbside” consultations if needed.
• Residents receive training in our dental clinic to better understand the role oral health plays in primary care.
• Academic half-day sessions focus on the latest advances in adult education, including active learning with discussions and hands-on demonstrations.
• Besides the group of primary faculty and preceptors who frequently teach residents, CHC has a call group comprised of family physicians who work in our neighborhood clinics. Residents learn directly from family physicians who are “walking the walk” of serving an underserved population with full-spectrum family medicine.