Last week, it was announced that the Toledo Hospital Family Medicine Residency Program is phasing out and will not accept any new residents into their program. The final class of residents will graduate in 2019 (Toledo Blade).
This is tremendously sad news. This program has graduated Family Physicians for more than 40 years. The eventual closure of this program will potentially limit more access to primary care and Family Medicine services for the Toledo community, in a time when the United States needs more access to primary care.
Here are some Fast Facts about national Family Medicine that you may not be aware of:
- Family Medicine takes are of One in Five office visits, often where no one else takes care of patients
- We are the only specialty where adding another physician to the community improves the morbidity and mortality, often while lowering costs
- We are the only specialty that crosses all age groups, genders, and organ systems - The Lifespan. We provide more mental health care than psychiatrists.
I challenge my friends and colleagues in the Family Medicine community - the Family Medicine Revolution, or #FMRevolution, to raise awareness of this story. It's always sad when a training program shuts down, but possibly more tragic when it's a Family Medicine program. Let's raise awareness on this! Use #SaveToledoFM hashtag on Twitter!