AgWest Farm Credit Presents Marian’s OB/GYN Residency Program Clinic with Meaningful Donation

AgWest Farm Credit visits Marian Regional Medical Center and presents a $73,500 philanthropic gift in support of Marian’s OB/GYN Residency Program 

SANTA MARIA, CA – October 6, 2023 – On October 5, 2023, AgWest Farm Credit presented Marian Regional Medical Center with a generous $73,500 philanthropic donation in support of Marian’s OB/GYN Residency Program Clinic. After presenting their significant grant award, representatives from AgWest Farm Credit toured Dignity Health’s Family Medicine Center in Santa Maria while physician leaders shared the vision and need for the future standalone OB/GYN Residency Program Clinic.

Marian’s OB/GYN Residency Program has flourished over the past four years, and the program is now at a crucial point where there is a need to open a standalone OB/GYN Residency Program Clinic. Marian continues to have the region’s highest number of annual infant deliveries, and in 2022 Marian set a new record of 3,290 deliveries.

“AgWest is thrilled to give to Marian Regional Medical Center for the construction of this new facility,” said Kevin Ralph, AgWest California State President. “We recognize the tremendous impact the standalone clinic will have on the training and education of future OB/GYN physicians. An investment in healthcare is an investment in the well-being of the patients and community members it will serve.”

Establishing a permanent home for the OB/GYN Residency Program, which trains physician residents to provide essential prenatal, perinatal, and postpartum services to thousands of Central Coast residents, will help alleviate a nationwide and local shortage of OB/GYN physicians—a shortfall that is expected to reach 22,000 physicians in the U.S. by 2050, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. 

“Our hospital is incredibly grateful to AgWest Farm Credit for making a meaningful investment in local health care by supporting Marian’s OB/GYN Residency Program Clinic,” shared Sue Andersen, Marian President and CEO. “AgWest Farm Credit’s commitment to supporting local women’s health care and to advancing the medical training and education of Marian’s OB/GYN physician residents is truly inspirational.”

The continued success of the OB/GYN Residency Program will provide a pipeline to recruit and retain OB/GYN physicians in the Santa Maria Valley and Central Coast. The OB/GYN Residency Program Clinic will also provide women’s health care services to a vastly diverse and medically vulnerable patient population. The OB/GYN Residency Program Clinic will offer a wide array of services, including birthing education, postpartum and lactation support, perinatal mood disorder support, early parenting support, nutrition counseling, women’s preventive care, as well as acute and chronic management of gynecologic conditions. A significant benefit of this clinic will be the addition of translators in Spanish and Mixtec languages. Once open, Pacific Central Coast Health Centerswill operate the new, 8,700-square-foot OB/GYN Residency Program.

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About Marian’s OB/GYN Residency Program 

Marian Regional Medical Center began the OB/GYN Residency Program in 2018 to address the local shortage of OB/GYNs. Marian’s OB/GYN Residency Program has a total of 12 physician residents (a four-year program with three residents per year). Studies indicate that residents tend to practice near the hospitals where they train (77.8% of residents who train in California will stay in California, and 56% will stay within 100 miles of where they train [AAFP, 2013]).

 About Marian Regional Medical Center

Marian Regional Medical Center is a state-of-the-art, 191-bed medical center located in Santa Maria, California. The modern facility is home to a broad array of services including a level II trauma center, a level III neonatal intensive care unit, a nationally recognized cardiac care center. It boasts the Central Coast’s only Comprehensive Community Cancer Program recognized by the Commission on Cancer. Marian has been recognized for quality and patient safety and named one of America’s 250 Best Hospitals by Healthgrades®. Marian Regional Medical Center together with Arroyo Grande Community Hospital in Arroyo Grande, and French Hospital Medical Center in San Luis Obispo, comprise Dignity Health Central Coast, a network of hospitals, physicians, and outpatient services including physician offices, ambulatory surgery centers, technologically-advanced laboratories and imaging centers, and a full-service home health agency. Learn more at dignityhealth.org/marianregional.