Community Health of South Florida Inc. (CHI) is now the first community health center to officially become a Teaching Health Center in the state of Florida.
The Brodes Hartley Jr. Teaching Health Center at CHI welcomed its first class of 13 medical residents on Monday, June 16. The program is made possible because of a Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) grant to help develop the nation’s physicians that work in diverse areas of great need.
“Our vision to become an educational institution of excellence is now realized,” said Brodes Hartley Jr., president and CEO at CHI. “CHI will be contributing to the national effort to train primary care clinicians to meet the needs of the many newly insured from the Affordable Care Act. It also brings a higher level of quality to the organization.”
The first class of residents includes four residents in family medicine, five in psychiatry and four in obstetrics and gynecology.
“For CHI, this means our patients will have more choices of doctors with an increased level of excellence and knowledge,” said Dr. St. Anthony Amofah, chief medical officer and chief academic officer at CHI. “Our residents will graduate with CHI as their official training site. This will increase CHI’s visibility in the healthcare community and improve our ability to recruit primary care clinicians over the next decade.”
The program is very competitive and intensive. Residents will rotate through CHI, local hospitals and with local specialists.
CHI has assembled a stellar faculty for the program with the assistance of partners such as Larkin Community Hospital and Nova Southeastern University. CHI also has affiliation agreements with many other educational institutions and hospitals, including Jackson Health System.
“We are very excited about this collaboration with Community Health of South Florida Inc., Florida’s only Teaching Health Center,” said Dr. Jack J. Michel, president and chair of the board at Larkin Community Hospital. “We will work together to train the next generation of primary care physicians.”
Community Health of South Florida Inc. started out as a beacon of hope for the uninsured more than 40 years ago. Today it has grown into a comprehensive nonprofit healthcare company that cares for nearly 300,000 insured and uninsured patients every year. It has 10 health centers spanning from the Keys to South Dade and into Coconut Grove. It also has 42 schoolbased health centers.
CHI has a one-stop shopping model that allows patients to utilize a number of services in one location. It has primary care, pediatrics, behavioral health, women’s health, urgent care, pharmacy, radiology, laboratory and more. CHI even offers free transportation for patients going to and from doctor’s appointments and also delivers low cost prescriptions at no delivery charge. CHI is accredited by the American Osteopathic Association and The Joint Commission.
