10 UM Physicians Graduate

Montana, Idaho and other underserved and rural areas gained 10 new family medicine physicians when UM’s Family Medicine Residency of Western Montana graduated its fourth class in June.

All 10 of the graduates have accepted employment, and seven plan to practice in Montana.

“We are very pleased to add to our prior graduates and will now have placed physicians in Browning, Hamilton, Helena, Kalispell, Lewistown, Libby, Missoula, Polson, Red Lodge, Ronan and Whitefish,” said Dr. Ned Vasquez, program director. “Our graduates also have entered practices in rural communities in California, Idaho and Washington. More than three-fourths of our graduates have remained in Montana, and a similar fraction is practicing in rural and underserved communities.”

The program is a part of UM’s Health and Medicine initiative. Based in Missoula and Kalispell, FMRWM is sponsored by UM and affiliated with the University of Washington Family Medicine Residency Network.

The UM residency program works with an extensive rural training network of 10 sites, including Anaconda, Browning, Butte, Dillon, Hamilton, Lewistown, Libby, Plains, Polson and Ronan, and plans to add new rural sites soon. The residency’s three primary sponsoring hospitals are Providence St. Patrick Hospital and Community Medical Center in Missoula and Kalispell Regional Medical Center.

The FMRWM Class of 2019 graduates and their future practice sites include:

• Caitlin Blau, Missoula
• Dallas Clark, Red Lodge
• Julia Gruetzmacher, Missoula
• Ruben Hipolito, Kalispell
• Matt Klippenstein, Reno, Nevada
• Rachel LaRocca, Woodstock, Vermont
• Madeline Mussman, Hamilton
• Karen Vesely, Whitefish
• Katie Williams, Lewistown
• Kelby Wilson, Grangeville, Idaho