On Sunday, March 18th, 2012 at 10pm Eastern Time/7pm Pacific Time, I'll be interviewing Dr. Michelle Quiogue who was part of the effort to keep the Family Medicne Residency Program open at Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield, California. This interview will take place on the Family Medicine Rocks Podcast Episode 246. (don't worry if you cannot listen live, you'll be able to download the podcast and listen anytime)
This story begins at the end of February 2012 when Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield, California announced that they would be closing their Family Medicine Residency Program. This story even made the local TV news cast. In the video above, you'll see my commentary on the subject.
This is where the story gets good. The community, lead by Family Medicine (in my opinion), came together to spead the word about the potential complications of such a closure which included the question, "Who will take care of all these patients? Where will they go?" The local news paper even wrote, not one, but two editorials favoring keeping the residency program open.
Just this week, Family Medicine advocacy (otherwise known as #FMRevolution) helped to turn the tide. Dr. Quiogue tweeted out the meeting where testimony was heard supporting the residency program. The county supervisors sided with the program and ordered the hospital to hire new Family Medicine residents. Yay! Also check out the local TV news report and the follow-up editorial by the newspaper. I hope you can join us for the rest of the story! (I encourage my Family Medicine friends to spread the word about the show!)