SummitStone Health Partners paves way for diverse healthcare avenues with new physician assistant program partnership
SummitStone continues to increase our reach and influence in the community as we grow in size and scope, especially as we prepare for the opening of the newly named Larimer County Behavioral Health Services at Longview – Acute Care facility currently under construction in southwest Fort Collins. SummitStone will be providing services there in partnership with UCHealth.
In order to meet increasing behavioral healthcare needs and with a focus on growing diversity in our workforce, we recently established a partnership with Meharry Medical College, a historically Black educational institution located in Nashville, Tennessee. Kara Caruthers, the Physician Assistant Sciences Associate Program Director for Meharry Medical College, met with SummitStone Health Partners in June and toured several SummitStone facilities including the Longview Behavioral Health campus. During her visit we also announced a new educational partnership where Meharry students will be able to fulfill their clinical rotation requirements with SummitStone starting in 2024.
Meharry Medical College is offering the physician assistant behavioral health clinical rotation with SummitStone to provide its students with the opportunity to practice medicine under the direction of a SummitStone physician. Meharry holds a focus on advancing health equity through innovative research, transformative education, exceptional and compassionate health services, and policy-influencing thought leadership – all of which makes this collaboration beneficial for the students and for our organization.
This is our first partnership with an historically Black college and hopefully the first of many partnerships that will help us to create the diverse and inclusive workforce that is so critical in delivering equitable and culturally relevant behavioral healthcare for Larimer County.
If you have questions, suggestions or comments on our efforts, please let me know at michael.allen@summitstonehealth.org. I’d love to hear from you!