The Wright Center’s National Family Medicine Residency Program Earns Highest Accreditation

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) has granted The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education’s pioneering National Family Medicine Residency Program a full 10-year accreditation, the highest rating available.

The ACGME is a private, not-for-profit organization that sets quality standards for U.S. graduate medical education programs and renders accreditation decisions based on compliance with these standards of best practices.

Established in 2013, The Wright Center’s unique National Family Medicine Residency program was created to address America’s severe primary care workforce shortage and escalating rural healthcare disparities. Eighty-five family medicine doctors have graduated to date, with 50 more physician learners enrolled in the program that now spans four states and two coasts, with training locations in Tucson, Arizona (El Rio Community Health Center); New Richmond, Ohio (HealthSource of Ohio); Auburn, Washington (HealthPoint); and Washington, D.C. (Unity Health Care).

As the largest Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education Consortium in the country, The Wright Center trains residents to provide care to the nation’s most vulnerable patients in high-performing, certified Patient-Centered Medical Homes, Federally Qualified Health Centers, and community-based hospitals. From humble beginnings in 1976 as the Scranton Temple Residency Program with just six internal medicine residents, it has blossomed into a physician-led, nonprofit organization with over 650 employees and close to 250 physician learners.

In earning full accreditation from the ACGME, The Wright Center has demonstrated compliance with ACGME’s rigorous standards and institutional requirements following initial accreditation in 2018 and a successful site visit this past September.

“For more than 45 years, The Wright Center has been committed to providing non-discriminatory, high-quality primary health care to the region’s underserved populations while creating the workforce pipeline America needs,” said Jumee Barooah, M.D., Designated Institutional Official for The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education. “There really is no other residency in the country that unites physicians across America like our national family medicine program, and I’m thrilled to see our efforts recognized by the ACGME.”