As Christus Spohn announced the ending of their Emergency Medicine Program, many physicians across the city, state and country are petitioning for the decision to be changed. Dozens of physicians showed up at Tuesday's public comment portion of the Corpus Christi City Council meeting to share their thoughts on the decision to end the program.
Emergency Medicine Physician Dr. Michael Brodur said he, along with many faculty and residents, felt blindsided by the news and were not given reasons as to why the decision was made other than there were not enough resources to sustain the program in the long run.
"We went into that meeting, and they had the unexpected news that the program was closing, and we had not heard anything leading up to it, and we basically begged them to hold off," Brodur said.
In a statement, Christus Spohn said the decision will not impact the quality of care patients receive. Many physicians statewide said otherwise, already noticing an immediate impact.
"Already we are hearing about residents looking at other programs across the country," Brodur said.
A big part of Brodur's job, and many other attending physicians, is to train residents. If there are no more residents, there will be no one to train, leaving other faculty in an unsettling position when it comes to their jobs.
"We don't just work shifts, so if that residency program goes, we all go with it," Brodur said.
Christus Spohn said they will do all that they can to help impacted faculty find other jobs within the healthcare system.
KRIS 6 also spoke with Dr. Sandra Williams, the President of the Texas College of Emergency Physicians. She said physicians statewide were shocked and saddened when they heard the news of the program ending. Williams said just how beneficial residents are to a hospital.
"Residents are the experts of providing emergency care. When you’re having your worst moment, you want the best person trained to take care of you, and if you have something less than that, you risk having bad outcomes, and we don’t want that for any patient. They also provide over 960 hours of staffing to the trauma ICU as well as the medical ICU, so that’s a huge benefit to the community," Williams said
She also added that in last year's graduating class, 6 out of the 12 residents from Christus Spohn stayed in the greater Corpus Christi area, leaving a continuous impact on not only the hospital but the community.
City Manager Peter Zanoni agreed to meet face-to-face with the CEO of Christus Spohn to discuss the decision to end the program. This is a developing story.
The difficult decision to phase out the Emergency Medicine Residency Program was made with thorough consideration of our community’s needs and our available resources to serve those needs. We ultimately determined that our ability to sustain this program would end with graduating the current residents in 2026.
To ensure the quality of care that CHRISTUS Spohn patients in the Coastal Bend receive will not change, we are committed to seeing that our emergency department staffing and other health care services remain strong as we wind down the teaching program. We are also committed to the residents currently enrolled in Emergency Medicine Residency Program. That is precisely why, as we have communicated to them, the program’s date of closure isn’t until June 2026. For any impacted faculty and other associates, we will do all that we can to provide support, including, but not limited to, assisting them in finding other open roles within CHRISTUS Health.
When the program was created in 2007, it was only one of three in the state. Now, there are 18. The program has been staffed far above the CHRISTUS Graduate Medical Education cap, and it has been privately funded by CHRISTUS Health for many years as a result.
There is a national oversupply of emergency residency slots. This year, 555 emergency medicine slots across the United States went unfilled. That number is up from 2022, when 219 were unfilled, according to the American College of Emergency Physicians. A study sponsored by ACEP found that there will be a surplus of emergency physicians by 2030.
We are proud of the more than 120 graduates we have supported and of the current residents we are supporting today. As a nonprofit health system, CHRISTUS Spohn remains dedicated to the quality and affordable health care we serve to the Coastal Bend. We will continue to focus on making integrated and consumer-focused care more accessible, reliable and personal for all of the people we are blessed to serve, as we extend the healing ministry of Jesus Christ.
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