Forty-four years after the Family Medicine Residency Program at Naval Hospital Pensacola was created, the final six residents completed their residency June 30 at a ceremony at the National Naval Aviation Museum at Naval Air Station Pensacola.

The ceremony marked the official closure of the program at NHP that graduated approximately 300 residents since its inception in 1972.

Throughout their three years at NHP, the residents were exposed to the full scope of family medicine and served as primary care managers for patients within NHP's Family Medicine Clinic. They treated patients of all ages and saw a variety of health care scenarios in both inpatient and outpatient settings to include pediatrics, surgery, internal medicine, gynecology, psychiatry, orthopedics, dermatology and neurology. Residents were also assigned to work within a Medical Home Port Team, which is a team based approach to primary health care where patients are assigned to a specific team of health care professionals. This wide range of health care knowledge is what attracted many of the residents to family medicine.

"Unlike physicians who specialize in a specific organ, organ system, disease or focus of procedures, a family physician is uniquely trained to care for the patient as a whole person," said Rear Adm. Kenneth Iverson, commander, Navy Medicine East, and a prior graduate of NHP's Family Medicine Residency Program. "The clinical specialty of family medicine is patient centered, evidence based, family focused and problem oriented. Family physicians focus on the physician-patient relationship and integrated care. Their scope is broad and extends from newborn to geriatric care of both genders. Family physicians not only treat diseases, they take care of people."

Significant previous graduates from NHP's program, in addition to Iverson, include Warren Jones, former president of the American Academy of Family Physicians; and Richard Jefferies, a retired rear admiral and former medical officer of the Marine Corps.

In 2012, the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery completed an analysis of nine CONUS in-patient facilities to address shifts in beneficiary populations and rising health care costs. One of the recommendations from that study was to consolidate Naval Hospital Pensacola's Family Medicine Residency program to other existing Family Medicine Residency Programs at Naval Hospitals Camp Pendleton, California; Camp Lejeune, North Carolina; Jacksonville, Florida; and a joint service program at Fort Belvoir Community Hospital, Virginia.

"The decision to close Naval Hospital Pensacola's Family Medicine Residency program was not made lightly," said Iverson. "It was reached as part of Navy Medicine's ongoing efforts to optimize care and training based on the unique patient mix in the geographic areas we serve. Moving forward, there will be no reduction in the amount of family medicine physicians we graduate, just in the amount of programs we offer."

While the closure of the Family Medicine Residency Program marks the end of NHP as a hospital for family medicine residents, patients visiting the hospital will not notice a difference in care. Beneficiaries that were assigned to a resident as their primary care manager will be assigned to another provider and the hospital still has a fully staffed OB/GYN Clinic and Labor and Delivery Clinic for child births.

"The Family Medicine Residency Program has been part of Naval Hospital Pensacola for the past 44 years," said Capt. Sarah Martin, commanding officer, Naval Hospital Pensacola, "and we have graduated almost 300 residents to be family physicians in the Navy over that time. While we are going to miss having residents at the hospital, our patients can be confident they will continue to receive the same great care and services they have always received here."

This year's graduates were Lt. Cmdr. Justin Deskin, Lt. Cmdr. Brett Lessman, Lt. Rebecca Allen, Lt. Maya Payne, Lt. Andrea Wurzer and Lt. James Writer.

Established in 1826, Naval Hospital Pensacola's mission is to provide patient centered superior quality health care to those it is privileged to serve. The command is comprised of the main hospital and 10 branch health clinics across five states. Of its patient population -- over 150,000 active-duty and retired Sailors, Soldiers, Marines, Airmen, Guardsmen, and their families -- almost 58,000 are enrolled with a primary care manager and a Medical Home Port Team at one of its facilities. To find out more, visit http://www.med.navy.mil/sites/pcola/Pages/default.aspx/ or download the command's mobile app (keyword: Naval Hospital Pensacola).

For more information, visit http://www.navy.mil/, http://www.facebook.com/usnavy/, or http://www.twitter.com/usnavy/.

For more news from Naval Hospital Pensacola, visit http://www.navy.mil/.