Teaching Health Center model
Most of your training happens where most family medicine is practiced: in community health centers, with hospital rotations built around that foundation.
Train where you’re needed most
Innercare Family Medicine Residency Program
A new ACGME-accredited, community-based residency preparing compassionate, clinically excellent family physicians for rural and medically underserved communities across the Coachella and Imperial Valleys. Our first class begins July 2027.
8Residents per year
24Total complement
3 yearsDuration of training
2030First class graduation
Sponsoring institution
FQHC-sponsored training in California’s desert communities
The Innercare Family Medicine Residency Program is an ACGME-accredited Teaching Health Center program preparing family physicians to serve rural and medically underserved communities across Riverside and Imperial Counties. The program is sponsored by Clinicas de Salud del Pueblo, Inc., dba Innercare, a Federally Qualified Health Center with deep community roots. Residents will receive hands-on training in community-based settings, where they will learn to care for the whole person, the whole family, and the whole community.
Residents will build continuity practices at three clinics in the Coachella Valley, including a rural track in Mecca, and complete hospital training in inpatient medicine, labor and delivery, and emergency medicine with regional partners. Training will emphasize maternal and child health, behavioral health integration, chronic disease management, and population health, with research opportunities through Innercare’s partnership with San Diego State University.
Why this program
Built for community-based Family Medicine
Whole-person primary care
Care for patients and families across the lifespan, from prenatal visits to geriatrics, with behavioral health integrated into everyday practice. Innercare is an NCQA-recognized Patient-Centered Medical Home.
Team-based community partners
Train alongside Community Health Workers and Promotoras through Innercare’s Enhanced Care Management program, joining home visits that help patients with complex needs set goals and overcome barriers to care.
NIH-funded research with SDSU
Join community-based research on maternal health, diabetes, and health equity through the Imperial County Clinical Research Network, an NIH-funded partnership between Innercare and San Diego State University.
From the Program Director
A letter from Hannah Laimer, DO
“Our mission is simple and urgent: to train excellent family physicians where they are needed most. As a member of our inaugural class, you will not simply inherit an established culture—you will help create it.”
Hannah Laimer, DO
Founding Program Director
Program at a glance
What applicants need to know now
Who should apply
Applicants committed to rural and underserved care who want to train in community health centers, practice with cultural humility, and work within an interdisciplinary care team that includes behavioral health specialists, case managers, and Community Health Workers and Promotoras. Many of our patients prefer to receive care in Spanish, so Spanish proficiency is a valuable asset.
How to apply
Apply through ERAS; the program participates in the NRMP Main Residency Match. Applicants must be eligible for a California Postgraduate Training License and meet USMLE/COMLEX and institutional employment requirements. The program accepts J-1 visas sponsored by ECFMG; H-1B visas are not sponsored at this time.
Compensation
Salaries, competitive with regional programs: PGY-1 $78,000 · PGY-2 $80,500 · PGY-3 $83,500. Residents also receive up to $12,048 per year in housing and meal stipends, a relocation stipend of up to $5,000, and a $2,000 annual education allowance. Benefits include medical, dental, vision, disability, and liability coverage, plus 15 days of paid vacation.
As employees of a nonprofit FQHC, residents may qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness, and graduates who practice in Health Professional Shortage Areas may be eligible for federal and state loan repayment programs.
Our sites
Training in the communities we serve
Residents will build their continuity practices in three Coachella Valley clinics and complete hospital training with regional partners in inpatient medicine, labor and delivery, and emergency care.
Continuity clinics
Each class of eight will be divided across three clinics:
- Innercare Coachella (4 residents), home clinic
- Innercare Mecca (2 residents), about 10 miles, 20 minutes
- DAP Health Centro Médico, Cathedral City (2 residents), about 22 miles, 30 minutes
Hospital and inpatient partners
- Eisenhower Medical Center, Rancho Mirage: adult inpatient medicine, labor and delivery, newborn care, and emergency medicine
- Hemet Global Medical Center, Hemet: additional adult inpatient training
- Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital, Loma Linda: inpatient pediatrics and pediatric emergency medicine
Rural track
Two of the eight positions each year are rural-track positions based at Innercare Mecca, serving the farmworker communities of the eastern Coachella Valley. All residents apply and match under a single NRMP program code.