Marian Regional Medical Center

Amount Appropriated?

$1.0M

FFID tracks stages 1–2 — stages 3–5 vary by agency, assistance type, and earmark structure.

Project Description

Racial and ethnic disparities in maternal morbidity and mortality rates are a leading public health challenge in the United States, with ethnic minorities expected to comprise more than one-half of the US population by 2050 (Brookings Institution). With a largely agricultural economy, 71% of the City of Santa Maria\u2019s population identify as Latinx or Hispanic, and 58% speak Spanish as their primary language. Newer immigrants, many of them seasonal migrant farmworkers from southern Mexico, speak only indigenous Mixtec and Zapotec languages, whose non-written form causes further translation and interpretation challenges. The full-time translators employed by Marian\u2019s OB/GYN Residency Clinic will dramatically improve patient communication and contribute to optimal health outcomes.\nMinority and low-income women are also two to three times more likely to experience an unintended pregnancy than white or higher-income women. In addition, teen pregnancies are more commonly experienced by minority women, who are less likely to use a consistent method of contraception and experience higher rates of contraceptive failure than white women. \nThe new OB/GYN Residency Program Clinic will establish a permanent home for the OB/GYN Residency Program and enable its ability to support a larger class of residents. An expansion of resident capacity will create a greater pipeline to recruit and retain more OB/GYN physicians in Santa Maria and the Central Coast. Based on national trends that place 55% of hospital resident graduates in the same communities where they completed their residency, it is projected that one to two OB/GYN post-residents will remain in the Santa Maria Valley region every year. More physicians remaining in the region will benefit the whole population, for whom there are not enough OB/GYN physicians to meet the overall need. \nIt is imperative for the community to fund the Marian OB/GYN Residency Clinic, from both fiscal and health equity perspectives.