Meet Us

About our Program

It's our mission to train allopathic and osteopathic Family Physicians – emphasizing excellence in evidence-based medicine, patient care, and community service – in preparation for practice in South Dakota and other areas of the rural Upper Midwest.

Residency Program in Sioux Falls

History & Affiliations

The Sioux Falls Family Medicine Residency was established in May, 1973, and has graduated over 400 residents to date. Seventy-five percent of these physicians practice in South Dakota and the contiguous states. Our program is sponsored jointly by Avera McKennan and Sanford Health Hospitals (combined bed capacity nearly 900) and is affiliated with the University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine. The residency is fully accredited and accepts nine residents per year.

  • University of Sioux Falls - Sanford School of Medicine
  • Avera Health

Residency Objectives

Residency Objectives
  • Training based on competency
  • Emphasize the rural physician perspective
  • Promote lifelong, self-directed learning
  • Promote evidence-based, comprehensive care and disease prevention
  • Care for patients of all ages and backgrounds in a variety of ambulatory and hospital settings
  • Treat patients within a holistic, biopsychosocial model of care

Special Program Focuses

Special Program Focuses
  • Robust obstetrical training
  • Strong procedural skills
  • Care of the underserved, including local, global, and refugee populations
  • Mental health teaching strategies to ensure proficient understanding and application of behavioral medicine

We Seek

We Seek
  • To render holistic, preventative, and therapeutic care to people within the context of their families
  • To provide residents with a foundation of knowledge and skills in which to build their future practice in a way that is personally and professionally rewarding

More about our program

Family physicians serve as the primary faculty, and other specialist attendings complement the teaching rotations. The residency faculty oversee the educational and evaluation process of the program. They also coordinate specialty rotations with community and university physicians who are dedicated to teaching residents. The basic three-year curriculum is explained on this website. The program was designed so residents can individually tailor it to meet their needs and interests.

In addition to the required and elective rotations, there is an “in-house” curriculum which consists of daily noon conferences encompassing various disciplines, complemented by other scheduled conferences and journal clubs. These meetings ensure broad exposure to the wide variety of problems encountered in family medicine and give insight to those conditions which are not so common.

The outpatient experience increases as the residents progress through the program and develop a “practice.” The residency is fortunate to have a patient population that spans all age groups and socioeconomic levels. The patients that the residents encounter at the Center for Family Medicine are a true cross-section of the community. The residents will experience similar patient diversity in private practice. Falls Community Health Center patients generally represent an underserved population and provide unique challenges and learning opportunities.

Meet our faculty!

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Meet Gabe

Gabe Harris, MD

Faculty
Meet Jim

Jim Wilde, MD

Faculty
Meet Charles

Charles Shafer, MD

Faculty