TACOMA FAMILY MEDICINE
Tacoma, Washington

PUYALLUP VALLEY FAMILY
PRACTICE CENTER
Puyallup, Washington

FM Mission/Who We Are

Tacoma Family Medicine is a university-affiliated, community hospital-sponsored family medicine residency program. We provide high quality education in family medicine with specific preparation for care of rural or urban underserved patients. We seek to exemplify the compatibility of service, education, and humane residency experience. Our goal is to provide excellent quality patient care in an environment of goodwill and companionship.

Program Focus/Special Features

• Only residency program in a 400-bed adult/obstetric hospital, Tacoma General Hospital, and an 80-bed children's hospital, Mary Bridge Children's Hospital.
• Multidisciplinary faculty, including nine family physicians practicing the full scope of family medicine, a behavioral scientist, six internists, eight ob/gyns, a pediatrician, and three nurse practitioners.
• Diverse patient population, both in our own practice, the surrounding community, and in our practice affiliations with the local Indian Health Service and community clinics.
• Special strengths in obstetrics and procedural training.
• Rural family medicine fellowship and its associated OB Access Clinic, with whom the residents work as part of the obstetrics program.

TFM Curriculum
Tacoma Family Medicine emphasizes training the "full-service" family physician, who will have the skills needed to provide excellent and comprehensive primary care for underserved populations. This includes continued emphasis on training in the inpatient areas of internal medicine, pediatrics, and obstetrics, as well as strong ambulatory experiences, including procedural skills and behavioral medicine. We have developed outpatient clinics in orthopedics, gynecology, psychiatry, and procedural medicine. Additionally, we are committed to the development of computer skills as a necessary tool for underserved practice in the future, and are upgrading to a computerized medical record and use of computer technology for efficiency and access.

TFM Clinic
The population of the Tacoma Family Medicine Clinic reflects that of the surrounding area of Tacoma, known as "the Hilltop", an urban underserved community; however, we care for many of the employees of the hospital, and draw from a wider geographic region as well. The ethnic diversity of the clinic includes about 70% Caucasian, 15% African American, 5% Hispanic, 5% Asian, with a smattering of other groups. We have an active obstetric population.

Program History
Tacoma Family Medicine is one of 18 family medicine residencies affiliated with the Department of Family Medicine of the University of Washington. We are proud of our tradition of graduating well-prepared Family Physicians, and will be celebrating our 28th. graduating class this year. We received continued full accreditation from the Residency Review Committee in 2005. Most of our graduates practice in the Pacific Northwest and in Alaska. Graduates are practicing in both rural and urban sites; the majorities are presently in communities of 25,000 or less. Six of our graduates are on the faculties of family medicine residency programs. Several of our graduates have served as missionaries and in other capacities in the third world.
Further requests for information about the residency, the community, and the application process should be directed to:

TACOMA FAMILY MEDICINE
521 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way
Tacoma, WA 98405
Phone: (253) 403-2938
e-mail: lquanrud@multicare.com
web: http://www.tacomafamilymedicine.org/