Riverside Health Foundation makes significant gift to Via Christi’s Family Medicine Residency Program

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Riverside Health Foundation recently donated $350,000 in support of graduate medical education at Via Christi Hospitals in Wichita — bringing its total contribution to Via Christi programs to nearly $9 million over the past 15 years.

Riverside Health Foundation’s board of directors directed that the funds be used to support the osteopathic track of the dually accredited Family Medicine Residency Program at Via Christi Hospitals in Wichita and the third- and fourth-year osteopathic student clinical training program.

Riverside Health Foundation board member Ron Stephen presented the check to Mike Mullins, chief executive officer of Via Christi Health and Kansas Ministry Market Leader for Ascension, and Monica Coen, Via Christi’s chief philanthropy officer.

“We’re extremely grateful for our ongoing partnership with the Riverside Health Foundation, which has been extraordinarily generous to us over the years in supporting our Family Medicine Residency Program.” said Mullins.

At Via Christi, which has one of the largest dually accredited family medicine residency programs in the country, between 30 and 35 percent of the osteopathic medical students who do their third- and fourth-year clinical training in Wichita stay to be a part of the residency programs each year. That helps families and communities statewide, as approximately half of all Via Christi family medicine residents choose to practice in Kansas.

“Via Christi has one of the top family medicine programs in the country and we’re pleased to continue our support of the osteopathic education and osteopathic medical students who train at Via Christi,” said Randy Coonrod, chairman of the Riverside Health Foundation board.

Having a dually accredited program like Via Christi’s affords residents the opportunity to become board-certified by both the American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians and the American Board of Family Medicine.

“Our program allows them to develop a strong foundation in osteopathic medicine as well as to be exposed to one of the strongest family medicine residency programs in the nation,” said Andrew Porter, DO, director of Osteopathic Medical Education for Via Christi’s medical students and family medicine residents.

 

 

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About Via Christi Health

In Kansas, Ascension’s Via Christi Health operates nine hospitals and 75 other sites of care and employs more than 6,000 associates. Across the state, Via Christi provided more than $77.8 million in community benefit and care of persons living in poverty in fiscal year 2016. Serving Kansas for more than 135 years, Ascension is a faith-based healthcare organization committed to delivering compassionate, personalized care to all, with special attention to persons living in poverty and those most vulnerable. Ascension is the largest non-profit health system in the U.S. and the world’s largest Catholic health system, operating 2,500 sites of care – including 141 hospitals and more than 30 senior living facilities – in 24 states and the District of Columbia. Visit www.viachristi.org

 

 

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