Valued Voice

Wisconsin hospitals and their graduate medical education (GME) programs realized the full potential in 2024 of “Grow Our Own” GME Residency Expansion grants updated by 2023 Wisconsin Act 185. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) awarded eleven multi-year Residency Expansion Grants on Oct. 7, 2024. The latest round of matching grant awards, totaling $20 million, brings the “Grow Our Own” public-private investment in training programs for physicians, allied health professionals and advanced practice clinicians to an impressive $98 million.

2024 was an exceptional year of progress for the “Grow Our Own” GME grant program, with a total of fourteen GME grants applied for and awarded – triple the number of prior years -- to create, expand and provide infrastructure for hospitals who would otherwise be unable to support a GME program. These gains were made possible by WHA-promoted updates to the “Grow Our Own” statute passed by the legislature and signed into law by Governor Evers in 2023. The new law, 2023 Act 185, lifts a per-hospital cap of three residents that has prevented some residency programs from expanding further and requires DHS to renew funding for qualified grantees going forward, creating greater sustainability in the program. 

DHS GME Grants Awarded During Calendar Year 2023

1. DHS GME Program Development Grants Awarded May 31, 2024

• Tamarack Health – Ashland Medical Center: Family Medicine = $1,000,000, allocated over five SFYs (SFY25-29)
• ThedaCare Regional Medical Center - Neenah Medical Foundation, multiple specialties = $1,000,000, allocated over four SFYs (SFY25-28)

2. DHW GME Consortium GME Grant Awarded June 27, 2024

• Wisconsin Northern & Central Consortium (WiNC) = $1,875,000, allocated over five-years (SFY25-29) Family Medicine, Psychiatry, Primary Care, Emergency Medicine & related fellowships 

3. DHS GME Residency Expansion Grants Awarded Oct. 7, 2024 (multiple rural sites included in each grant)

• Aurora Health Care Metro - internal medicine = $1,458,871, allocated over three SFYs (SFY26-28)
• Memorial Medical Center - Ashland (Tamarack) – emergency medicine fellowship = $150,000, for SFY26
• SSM Health Monroe - rural emergency medicine = $750,000, allocated over five SFYs (SFY26-30)
• SSM Health Monroe - rural family medicine = $3,300,000, allocated over five SFYs (SFY26-30)
• UW Dept. of Family Medicine & Community Health / SSM Health St. Mary's Hospital - Rural Health = $3,795,251, allocated over six SFYs (SFY26-31)
• UW Hospital & Clinics - general surgery = $2,279,804, allocated over five SFYs (SFY26-30)
• UW Hospital & Clinics - psychiatry = $2,013,993, allocated over five SFYs (SFY26-30)
• UW Hospital (Meriter) OB/GYN = $1,858,098, allocated over four SFYs (SFY26-29)
• UW Hospital (Meriter) Family Medicine OB/GYN = $828,551 in additional funding, allocated over six SFYs (SFY26-31)
• UW Dept. of Family Medicine & Community Health – addiction medicine = $300,000, allocated over two SFYs (SFY26-27)
• MCW / Froedtert - general surgery = $3,144,712, allocated over five years (SFY26-30)

 The “Grow Our Own” grant program was spearheaded by WHA in 2013 and data-driven by WHA’s 2011 study, 100 New Physicians a Year: An Imperative for Wisconsin. In 2017, inspired by the success of the GME grants, training grants were added for allied health professionals and advanced practice clinicians. To date 144 matching grants have been awarded to hospitals and health systems and their partners in education and training, providing a GME pipeline that will produce 86 new physicians each and every year when full, support 32 new training programs for advanced practice nurses and physician assistants, and provide 46 grant-supported training opportunities for in-demand allied health professionals from surgical technicians, to radiographers and laboratorians, to registered nurses and many more.

Please contact WHA’s Ann Zenk for questions about “Grow Our Own” grants or any workforce issue.