On January 25, the American Academy of Family Physicians published a blog post by AAFP Board Director Gary LeRoy, MD, about ProMedica’s recent announcement that they plan to close the Toledo Hospital Family Medicine Residency.
Read the blog post, “Holy Toledo! As Bad Ideas Go, Closing Residency is a Whopper.”
In addition, the Ohio Academy of Family Physicians distributed the blog post to media outlets in Northwest Ohio.
Thanks for putting so much effort into describing what is another example of uncoordinated decision- making in an area that is of critical importance to the state of Ohio – primary care workforce. Ohio lacks a structured method of assessing primary care workforce need or directing primary care workforce efforts. This leaves decision-making up to individual organizations without any accountability to the public for those decisions. Many other states have created bodies to oversee the data analytic efforts to determine their primary care need. Using this unbiased information, they then direct the use of funds to either expand training in existing programs or start up new training programs in areas of need. Gary Leroy’s article points out not only the need to cry out loudly about this latest I’ll-advised FM residency closure (I hope you all have voiced your concerns!), but also to establish a Primary Care Workforce Coalition in Ohio that is structured to have the needs of the public drive future decisions of this type.