Christus Spohn Hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas, plans to close its emergency medicine residency program, which will end after its current residents graduate in 2026.
The "difficult decision" to phase out the residency program was made with "thorough consideration of our community's needs and our available resources to serve those needs," the health system said in a statement provided to Becker's.
Christus said it is committed to maintaining the strength of its emergency department staffing and other healthcare services in the region as it winds down the reaching program.
"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," according to the system.
Residents of the Coastal Bend region have opposed the decision, arguing that loss of the program "would be a great blow to our city's health infrastructure," according to a petition asking the hospital to reverse its decision. As of Oct. 17, the petition had more than 2,700 signatures.
When launched in 2007, the emergency medicine residency program was one of three in the state. Now, there are 18, according to Christus, which said the program has been staffed "far above" the Christus Graduate Medical Education cap and has been privately funded by the system for many years as a result.
"There is a national oversupply of emergency residency slots," the system said in a statement that cited data from the American College of Emergency Physicians.
This year, 555 emergency medicine slots across the U.S. went unfilled — up from 2022, when 219 were unfilled, according to ACEP. A study sponsored by the organization recently found that there will be a surplus of emergency physicians by 2030.