Family Medicine
Introduction
Dr. Rodney Young
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 a great wealth of 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 for unique and varied 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.
The Center for Family Medicine, located at BSA Hospital, houses our outpatient services. These spacious facilities, which opened in March 1999, include modern, multimedia equipped conference rooms for resident and student education. The Center also has laboratory and radiology services in the office, and two well-equipped procedure rooms for minor surgical and diagnostic procedures. Having our outpatient facilities attached to the hospital makes admission of our patients very convenient for residents and staff.
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) 212-3558 or e-mail us at: FM@ttuhsc.edu.