Part-Time and Combined Residency Policy

Part-Time Residency

ABFM requires prior approval for part-time or reduced training schedules. Your residency Program Director must submit a description of the curriculum outlining how your part-time schedule complies with the ACGME Program Requirements and the specific conditions described below. Any subsequent changes must be approved by ABFM in advance. Your curriculum design must meet the following guidelines:

• A satisfactory reason for your part-time status must be communicated.
• Your educational needs must be assured.
• Your continuity of care experience must occur in a Family Medicine Practice site approved by the Residency Review Committee and must occur in the same Family Medicine Practice site in the PGY-2 and PGY-3 years of training. During the PGY-2 and PGY-3 years, you will be required to complete comprehensive continuity of care for patients in the Family Medicine Practice site on a full-time equivalent basis. Clinical rotations/experiences and continuity clinic time will be integrated during the part-time schedule. Block clinic time without concurrent clinical rotations/experiences does not reduce the continuity of care requirement or the length of training time but can serve to assure compliance with the continuity of care requirement. You will need to complete the same minimum number of continuity patient visits as required of full-time residents.
  • Fairness to other residents in the program has been considered and addressed.
  • Your total curriculum equates to the sum of clinical experiences and responsibilities of that of a resident with a normal full-time schedule.
  • Documentation regarding how your continuity of care responsibilities will be assured throughout the term of your training experience.

Combined Residency

Family Medicine combined residencies are residency programs sponsored by a single institution that provides residents with all of the curricular elements of a categorical ACGME-accredited family medicine residency as well as the required ACGME curricular elements of a second discipline. They are specifically designed to enable residents to complete and become eligible to take the certification examination in both specialties one year earlier than if they were to have completed the two residencies in a sequential fashion.

Combined residencies involving family medicine are not accredited by the ACGME—they are approved by ABFM and the second ABMS specialty board involved. At the present time, ABFM has approved combined residency training programs in conjunction with the American Board of Internal Medicine, the American Board of Emergency Medicine, the American Board of Preventive Medicine, and the American Board of Psychiatry.

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