Modesto hospital approved as training site for new doctors. The first arrive next year

Modesto is moving up in the graduate medical education world as healthcare needs grow in the Northern San Joaquin Valley.

Sutter Health announced Thursday that Memorial Medical Center received national accreditation for an internal medicine residency and a second training program for family practice doctors. Residency programs teach medical school graduates to effectively care for patients in medical clinics and hospitals.

Sutter’s Memorial Medical Center, at Briggsmore Avenue and Coffee Road, will be a training facility for 26 resident physicians in an internal medicine program starting in June 2025. In addition, a family medicine residency with 13 doctors-in-training will begin the same month. Both are three-year programs.

The internal medicine program will have 19 residents in each annual class, plus seven residents who are there for a one-year internship before going on to specialized training in a field such as anesthesiology. The three-year family medicine program will have 13 residents in each class, or a total of 39 in the program.

A Sutter news release said the Central Valley has a disproportionately low number of healthcare providers, yet it’s one of the fastest-growing regions in California. Nationally, the primary care field has not attracted as many new physicians as young doctors aspire to work as specialists.

The resident physicians coming to Modesto may be from any medical school in the country and will receive training in primary care, which includes family medicine, internal medicine, obstetrics and pediatrics.

Dr. Robert Altman, president and chief executive officer of Gould Medical Group, said it’s more difficult to recruit doctors to the Central Valley, where homes are being built again and medical care needs are growing faster than in the coastal counties.

Sutter Health needs to keep up with the demand. From Riverbank to Tracy and Mountain House in San Joaquin County, the Sacramento-based nonprofit system is projecting 30,000 housing starts in the next three years.

“We hope the majority of the (resident physicians) stay, but it’s not a requirement,” Altman said Thursday. “Some may decide to set up their own private practice. The goal is to bring as many good doctors to work with us as we can.”

Health organizations that invest in graduate medical education are heartened by studies showing that a substantial number of doctors stay within 25 to 50 miles of where they completed residency training.

Sutter Health has residency and fellowship programs across its Northern California service territory in Sacramento, Davis, Oakland, San Francisco and Santa Rosa, offering training in family practice, surgery, cardiology, gastroenterology and organ transplants. The two new programs are a first for Sutter in Modesto.

With its expansion of graduate medical education, Sutter said it aims to turn out 1,000 graduates each year by 2030.

In Modesto, the resident physicians will receive rigorous training at Memorial Medical Center and a continuity clinic on Sylvan Avenue.

Altman said a Sutter Health residency may offer a range of experience for new doctors, from rural primary care clinics to high levels of care such as organ transplants at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco.

Altman said the residents will learn from Sutter physicians. At the same time, a residency program keeps practicing physicians updated on medical knowledge as they educate the new physicians. It’s possible the residency programs in Modesto will attract a few physicians to the area who are interested in teaching.

Awareness of the Valley’s diversity

The doctors-in-training will work with patients from a diverse community in Stanislaus County. Latinos represent about half the county population and Sutter will keep that in mind as resident physicians are chosen for the programs, the news release said.

“One of the larger goals of our graduate medical education programs is to have our residents and fellows reflect the diversity of the patients we serve,” Dr. Raeleigh Payanes said in the news release. Payanes will oversee the family medicine residents in Modesto. “We look forward to welcoming some of the best and brightest minds next summer, who will come from all walks of life and bring their unique experiences to help care for those here in the Central Valley.”

A family medicine residency has operated in Stanislaus County for decades with training at Doctors Medical Center and county health clinics. The three-year program operated by the Valley Consortium for Medical Education has 12 residents in each class. In July, physicians with Golden Valley Health Centers will assume the role of supervising the residents at the Paradise Medical Office in west Modesto.