Family Medicine

The family medicine residency program in Amarillo began in 1972 as one of the first residency programs at Texas Tech. We offer the benefits of an academic center as a university administered program, balanced with the warmth and hospitality of a community-based residency. Texas Tech offers great resources, technologies, and research opportunities, as well as training opportunities with clinical faculty in different subspecialties.

Our first year of training is concentrated on core areas of inpatient care, with seven months of rotations housed in other academic departments at Texas Tech. This offers residents the firsthand training perspective of residents in other disciplines, since their responsibilities are the same as their first year resident peers in the respective departments. The remaining five months are spent at Baptist St. Anthony (BSA) Health System, our primary teaching hospital, honing inpatient and ER skills and acclimating to our community hospital environment. The final two years of training closely mirror the experience offered at many community-based family medicine residencies.

As the only residency based at BSA, we have access to a large and varied patient base representing the full spectrum of age and illness without competition from other residencies. We offer clinical rotations for students from other medical schools in addition to our clinical training for Texas Tech medical students. And, our affiliation with BSA allows a variety of training opportunities with private physicians in the community.

Our residents follow continuity obstetrical patients throughout their prenatal care, delivery at Northwest Texas Hospital (NWTH), and post-partum care.  We also partner with a community organization that offers prenatal services to low-income women by establishing care later in pregnancy, then providing delivery and newborn care at NWTH. This partnership helps us provide additional obstetrical experience for those residents most interested in maternity care. Family Medicine faculty and residents work closely with Texas Tech OB/GYN faculty to offer a wide range of obstetrical services.

Our beautiful new outpatient clinic opened for business July 20, 2009. This modern facility is 20% larger than our old clinic space and includes 34 spacious exam rooms, 2 large and well-equipped procedure suites, a multimedia equipped conference room for resident and student education, central library, precepting, and nursing spaces, and our electronic health record system.  Resident, faculty and administrative office spaces are integrated together around the periphery of the facility to promote clinical, educational, and mentoring interactions.  This 5th floor addition to the School of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences building is just down the street from BSA (a 1 minute drive or 5 minute walk away) in the heart of the rapidly expanding health sciences center campus.

Residency training in family medicine can be a daunting proposition given the depth and breadth of our specialty. We understand this and respect the varied practice goals that each of our residents brings to the program. The department is committed to helping our residents set and meet individual goals for specialized knowledge areas or specific competencies that will help them meet their future practice goals, in addition to meeting all the required program components.

We offer a strong, challenging, and flexible training program with progressive responsibility in a warm and welcoming environment. These features of the Texas Tech University Family Medicine residency in Amarillo make it an optimal training experience. We invite you to contact our department at (806) 351-3777 ext 292 or e-mail us at: mary.j.ramirez@ttuhsc.edu