The Senate version of legislation to add the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine to the Family Medicine Residency Network passed out of the Senate Higher Education & Workforce Development Committee tonight.
The vote comes just in time, with all bills needing to be moved out of their policy committees by Friday. This evening’s meeting of the committee was its last before that deadline.
The House version also has cleared its policy committee and both bills await floor votes in their respective chambers. The measures would add WSU as a third co-chair to the Family Medical Education Advisory Board along with UW Medicine and the Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences. Both have supported the bill.
The network was established in 1975 to support family medicine residencies in the state and encourage the development of new ones. State law was updated in 2015 and funding provided to incentivize hospitals and clinics to expand such programs and develop new ones. The advisory board also was established to make recommendations on the selection of areas where affiliated residency programs will exist.