Title
a. Authorize the Chief Executive Officer for Natividad Medical Center (NMC) or his designee to execute a Program Letter of Agreement with Katherine Healthcare LLC for Resident rotations at no cost with an agreement term retroactively from February 15, 2025 through February 14, 2030.
b. Approve the NMC’s Chief Executive Officer’s recommendation to accept non-standard insurance provisions within the agreement.
Report
RECOMMENDATION:
It is recommended the Board of Supervisors:
a. Authorize the Chief Executive Officer for Natividad Medical Center (NMC) or his designee to execute a Program Letter of Agreement with Katherine Healthcare LLC for Resident rotations at no cost with an agreement term retroactively from February 15, 2025 through February 14, 2030.
b. Approve the NMC’s Chief Executive Officer’s recommendation to accept non-standard insurance provisions within the agreement.
SUMMARY/DISCUSSION:
This agreement is to establish an educational partnership between the Natividad Family Medicine Residency and Katherine Healthcare, a long-term care facility located in Salinas.
The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) requirements for Family Medicine Residency specify the following requirements pertaining to training in long-term care facilities (e.g. skilled nursing facilities or nursing homes):
• Residents must demonstrate competency to diagnose, manage, and integrate the care of patients of all ages in various inpatient settings, including hospitals, long-term care facilities, and rehabilitation facilities.
• Residents must be primarily responsible for a panel continuity patients, integrating each patient’s care across all settings, including the home, long-term care facilities, the FMP site, specialty care facilities, and inpatient care facilities.
• Long-term care experiences should occur over a minimum of 24 months.
• Programs should have family medicine physician faculty members providing care outside of an FMP, including in inpatient pediatric, pregnancy-related care, skilled nursing, and home-based care facilities and settings.
The residency does not currently have a relationship with a long-term care facility to provide these training experiences. The leadership and staff of Katherine Healthcare are enthusiastic about incorporating the Family Medicine residents and faculty into their care team, as several of them have worked with our residents and faculty at other facilities.
The residents will provide primary care for a panel of patients at Katherine Healthcare, conducting monthly and as needed visits under the supervision of faculty physicians. Residents can spend additional time getting to know patients, and provide continuity of care over several years, which his beneficial to the patients. Our service will also be able to provide enhanced inpatient care to patients from our panel of Katherine Healthcare patients when they are hospitalized at Natividad Medical Center, as they will be admitted to our Family Medicine Inpatient Service and cared for by residents and faculty who are familiar with their medical history.
Benefits to Natividad Medical Center include excellent training for residents, compliance with residency accreditation requirements, and revenues from supervising physicians overseeing the resident visits (billing is submitted through Natividad Medical Center).
OTHER AGENCY INVOLVEMENT:
The Office of County Counsel has reviewed and approved this agreement as to legal form, and the Auditor-Controller has reviewed and approved as to payment provisions. The agreement has also been reviewed and approved by NMC’s Finance Committee and by its Board of Trustees on June 13, 2025
FINANCING:
There is no cost associated with this agreement.
BOARD OF SUPERVISORS STRATEGIC INITIATIVES:
This educational collaboration improves Natividad's ability to train family physicians prepared to provide comprehensive care to the people of Monterey County, both during their 3 years of residency training, during which they care for patients at Natividad and the Monterey County Clinic Services Bureau, as well as after graduation from residency, as many of our graduates will go on to practice primary care in Monterey County.
__ Economic Development
__ Administration
X Health and Human Services
__ Infrastructure
__ Public Safety
Prepared by: Dr. Melissa Nothnagle, Director of Family Medicine Residency, 755-4201
Approved by: Charles R. Harris, Chief Executive Officer, 783-2553
Attachments:
Program Letter of Agreement with Katherine Healthcare LLC
Attachments on file with the Clerk of the Board