BY CATHY HALL for WEEKLY VOLCANO 1/9/26 |
Virginia Mason Franciscan Health’s termination of affiliation with Community Health Care’s family medicine physician residency affects the health of everyone in Pierce County.
Community Health Care’s Family Medicine Residency was notified that Virgina Mason Franciscan Health is terminating its training agreement with our Physician Residency Program effectively removing the ability for any of Community Health Care’s residents to learn in any VMFH facility. This decision will greatly impact the residency, which trains primary care doctors to serve the community’s most disadvantaged populations using St. Joseph Medical Center as a primary participating site. Family medicine residents must complete training in clinics, specialist’s offices, and hospitals. This decision threatens the program’s existence.
Recently, Catholic Health Initiative (Franciscan Health System) merged with Dignity Health to become CommonSpirit and then quickly merged with Virginia Mason to become Virgina Mason Franciscan Health. This caused a rapid turnover in leadership and the new leadership does not have an appreciation of the history of the two organizations or the commitment to the needs of Pierce County. We have had a mutually beneficial relationship with St. Joseph’s Medical Center since our founding in 1969, working together to improve the health of Pierce County.
Since 2014, CHC’s Family Medicine Residency program has educated family medicine physicians to provide thorough care to a broad spectrum of patients, including newborns, children, pregnant women, and adults of all ages. Its affiliation with St. Joseph Medical Center started at the program’s inception. Together in this partnership, the residency has graduated 55 family doctors and nearly 80% remain in the local area, the pacific northwest or are connected to military service, all of which benefit VMFH. The termination agreement includes St. Joseph Medical Center and all Virginia Mason Franciscan Health facilities. This encompasses a significant number of medical entities in Pierce County. “Our local community already has a difficult time accessing healthcare in a reasonable amount of time,” said Dr. Carri Jo Timmer, the Program Director for CHC’s Family Medicine Residency program. “Who hasn’t heard a friend or family member complain about long wait times to access a primary care doctor? This announcement unfortunately worsens that reality.”
All of Pierce County is a medically underserved area. Part of the solution is having physicians to provide care. Our hope is that all in Pierce County will contact the leadership at Virgina Mason Franciscan Health and encourage them to recommit themselves to Pierce County. Virginia Mason Franciscan Health’s “Humankindness” statement ends with, “a shared belief that there is extraordinary power to be found in simple acts of kindness, empathy, and respect.” These words seem to ring hollow as their commitment to Pierce County begins to fade.
Since 1969 Community Health Care has served low-income and uninsured citizens of Pierce County. In 2024, 54,519 patients were served through 200,182 patient visits.
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