Following a grassroots advocacy effort by local physicians, CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital in Corpus Christi recently reversed its plan to close the CHRISTUS Health-Texas A&M Spohn Hospital Emergency Medicine Residency program in 2026. The program will continue at least through 2029 thanks to funding from the Nueces County Hospital District.
“This [closure] would have been crippling to the community’s ER care for decades,” said Craig Pedersen, DO, an emergency physician at CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital and director of academic progression for the residency program.
CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital announced its initial closure plan on Oct. 12, citing availability of resources and shocking the medical community.
“I never in a million years thought that this would ever happen because we are a really successful program,” Dr. Pedersen said, pointing to steep competition for residency positions and a positive Match Day track record.
Nonetheless, the program faculty and residents quickly mobilized, reaching out to local leaders and testifying before the Corpus Christi City Council, the Nueces County Commissioners Court, and the Nueces County Hospital District.
Dr. Pedersen says the faculty banded together and spoke publicly, allowing program leadership to work with hospital administrators toward a lasting solution and allowing residents to focus on their training and clinical responsibilities. They earned the community’s support by showing up to public meetings en masse and explaining the stakes of closing an emergency medicine residency program in an underserved region.
“It was a pretty impactful visual,” Dr. Pedersen said of the group’s white-coat attire.
The Nueces County Medical Society (CMS) and the Texas Medical Association also got involved, echoing the pleas of program faculty.
In an Oct. 20 op-ed in the Corpus Christi Caller Times, Nueces CMS President Reuben Pedraza, MD, and TMA President Rick Snyder, MD, urged CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital to reconsider and called on local leaders, including at the Nueces County Hospital District, to provide greater oversight of residency programs.
“Many residents in our community are indigent or have limited resources, so emergency services are the only way to access needed health care,” they wrote. “We feel it is crucial to continue to train emergency department physicians locally to help fulfill those needs.”
Thanks to the physicians’ campaign, CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital and the Nueces County Hospital District reached an agreement in early December to continue the residency program for at least six more years.
“With this enhanced partnership with the hospital district, we will be able to confidently invite more classes of residents into the program in the future knowing they will have a sustainable and high-quality learning experience at CHRISTUS Health,” the hospital said in a statement shared with Texas Medicine Today.
Program faculty express hope this deal will serve as a stopgap until a long-term solution is found. They also are grateful for their community, local elected officials, and organized medicine for supporting their cause.
“It was incredibly heartwarming and really special seeing people of whatever political persuasion coming together for a cause like this,” said Michael Brodeur, MD, an emergency physician at the hospital and curriculum director of the residency program.
Dr. Pedersen says the experience was a galvanizing one.
“It’s underscored the importance of being willing and able to advocate for yourself and your colleagues and your impact,” he said.
Gary Floyd, MD, a retired pediatrician who lives in Corpus Christi and immediate past president of TMA, commends the faculty and residents for ensuring the program’s survival, which he says is critical given the physician workforce shortage in Texas. This shortage is especially acute in rural areas, which struggle to recruit physicians from metro areas.
“Their best pipeline is a local training program,” he said.
The faculty and residents developed a playbook for their peers facing similar residency program closure announcements, adds Dr. Floyd, who also is Dr. Pedersen’s father-in-law.
The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) reports the withdrawal of 21 accredited U.S. residency programs so far during the 2023-24 academic year, including The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine’s hospice and palliative medicine program (effective September 2023) and UT Health San Antonio Long School of Medicine’s neurology residency program (effective June 2024). Residency program openings outpaced closures, however, with 118 new programs reported over the same period, including 17 in Texas.
“We have a blueprint here of how TMA and county medical societies can work with the existing faculty to help muster community support to maintain their programs because we need more residency training programs [in Texas],” Dr. Floyd said.
TMA’s Resident and Fellow Section serves as a voice for its members, who also help create association policy. For more information, check out the section webpage.