OAHS Announces Development of Rural Family Medicine Residency Program

Ortonville Area Health Services (OAHS) is pleased to announce the development of an ACGME-accredited family medicine residency program that will bring physician training to western Minnesota and help strengthen the future of rural healthcare. Accreditation by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) means the program meets nationally recognized standards for physician training and education.

The program is being developed in collaboration with the University of Minnesota. A family medicine residency provides physicians who have completed medical school with specialized, hands-on training to become family medicine doctors. Residents in the program will spend their first year of training in an urban teaching environment before transitioning to Ortonville for their final two years, where they will gain hands-on experience caring for patients in our rural region.

The program will provide medical residents with experience across a broad range of healthcare settings, including family medicine, hospital care, obstetrics, emergency care, behavioral health and senior care. Residents will also have opportunities to become part of the community and learn how local resources, schools, families, and community relationships play an important role in rural healthcare.

The program builds on OAHS’s strong history of clinical education and provider recruitment. More than half of OAHS’s current providers previously completed clinical rotations within the organization before joining the OAHS medical staff.

By training physicians in a rural setting, OAHS hopes to introduce medical residents to the unique opportunities of rural practice while building on its long-standing approach of developing and recruiting healthcare professionals locally. The long-term goal is to strengthen the local healthcare workforce, expand access to primary care, and create a pathway for physicians to build their careers in rural communities.

“This program represents an investment in the future of healthcare in our region,” said Dr. Allan Ross, CEO of Ortonville Area Health Services. “Rural communities across the country face ongoing challenges in recruiting and retaining physicians. By creating a residency program in Ortonville, we have the opportunity to train physicians in a rural setting, expose them to the unique rewards of rural practice, and develop a pathway for recruiting and retaining providers for years to come.”