UNR, Banner and Fallon leaders outline plan for rural family medicine residency at Banner Churchill

A coalition that includes the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine, Banner Churchill Community Hospital and local health leaders presented a plan to the Churchill County Board of Commissioners to establish a rural family medicine residency in Fallon that would place residents in Fallon for their second and third years of training.

The proposal aims to address local primary care shortages by recruiting residents who train in Reno for a first year and then complete two years of continuity training in Fallon, with the first Fallon-based residents expected to arrive in July 2027 and graduate in June 2029 if milestones are met.

The residency effort matters because rural residency programs increase the supply of primary care physicians in underserved areas and can have broader local economic impact. Presenters said a rural family physician working with a local hospital creates indirect community income and jobs and that graduates who train in-state have higher rates of retention.

Dr. Ted McDonald, Central Nevada Health Officer, summarized the project history and local work to date. He described past attempts to create a residency in Churchill County dating to 2008 and 2014, and said consultants and recent facility assessments have confirmed the community can support a program that initially would host two residents in rural training and later grow to four total residents at full maturity.

"We passed that," McDonald said of recent assessments, referring to a site-readiness evaluation and a feasibility study. "The community is ready. It will support two residents."

Dr. Amy McGaughey, chair of family and community medicine at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine, described the proposed training model: residents would spend the first postgraduate year (PGY-1) in Reno to complete required subspecialty rotations, then complete PGY-2 and PGY-3 in Fallon where residents have continuity panels and provide supervised primary care from day one.

McGaughey said the program timeline is ambitious but feasible if milestones are met: "If we hit each of our milestones ... the first residents would step foot at Banner in July of 2027," she said. She also called sustainable, diversified funding and local faculty development essential, and flagged housing as an outstanding operational need for residents who would live in Fallon for two years.

Paul Hauptman, dean of the UNR School of Medicine, told commissioners the program’s aim is not simply to train residents but to retain them in rural Nevada. He cited internal data showing roughly a 60 percent chance residents who complete training in Nevada will stay in the state; that figure rises if the resident is a Nevada medical student.

County manager Jim Barbee invited the presenters to meet with his office to discuss possible county funding and next steps. McDonald asked that the county consider appointing a representative to the program’s steering committee; commissioners and staff discussed how county representation on the committee could inform local budgeting and housing planning.

Presenters said the program has passed two recent external reviews (a community feasibility valuation and a site-readiness assessment), that consultants and the School of Medicine are working on accreditation steps, and that Banner Churchill Community Hospital and local physicians have committed to faculty and clinical supervision roles.

Ending: Presenters left commissioners with a list of near-term needs: steady funding commitments, accreditation work with UNR, housing solutions for residents, and faculty development. Commissioners asked staff to follow up and consider how the county could support the effort and whether a county representative should join the steering committee.