CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Tension, emotion and controversy are now on the rise as CHRISTUS Spohn Shoreline announced the closure of its emergency medicine residency program.
On Tuesday, residents, faculty and their loved ones are making their voices heard at city council, on the importance of the program staying in the Coastal Bend.
"This city truly holds a special place in my heart," said emergency medicine physician John Cameron. "It's where I married my wife. Bought my first home and witnesses the birth of my two daughters. With the closure of this program, the enormous impact myself and my faculty members could have had on this community would be completely lost."
CHRISTUS Spohn Shoreline announced the closure of its emergency medicine residency program.
Many oppose the decision and its claimed impact on emergency healthcare in the Coastal Bend.
Following Thursday's announcement, a petition was started in the hope that the hospital would reverse its decision. Over the weekend, it garnered over 2,000 signatures.
CHRISTUS Spohn provided 3NEWS with the following statement Monday, which reads:
CHRISTUS Spohn will end its Emergency Medicine Residency Program, effective June 2026. The decision to do so was made with incredible consideration to our ministry’s available resources and it was ultimately determined that our ability to sustain this program for the long-term future was limited. This closure will absolutely not impact the quality of care patients receive. We remain committed to the residents currently enrolled in the program, which is precisely why the program’s date of closure isn’t until June of 2026.
CHRISTUS Spohn is proud to deliver quality, affordable health care to South Texas. We thank our leaders of this program for their many years of service. Under their leadership, CHRISTUS Spohn as demonstrated a strong commitment to caring for those in need. With that same level of commitment, CHRISTUS Spohn is focused on making excellent, integrated, and consumer-focused care more accessible, reliable and personal for all those we serve. And we remain steadfast to our mission of extending the healing ministry of Jesus Christ.
As of Tuesday, the hospital provided another statement that reads:
The difficult decision to phase out the Emergency Medicine Residency Program was made with thorough consideration of our community’s needs and our available resources to serve those needs. We ultimately determined that our ability to sustain this program would end with graduating the current residents in 2026.
To ensure the quality of care that CHRISTUS Spohn patients in the Coastal Bend receive will not change, we are committed to seeing that our emergency department staffing and other health care services remain strong as we wind down the teaching program. We are also committed to the residents currently enrolled in Emergency Medicine Residency Program. That is precisely why, as we have communicated to them, the program’s date of closure isn’t until June 2026. For any impacted faculty and other associates, we will do all that we can to provide support, including, but not limited to, assisting them in finding other open roles within CHRISTUS Health.
Many of the physicians that spoke Tuesday explained why they chose Corpus Christi to start their emergency medicine residency, which is an additional 3-4 years of training after they have completed medical school.
"Every year we have 36 ER residents that we train. This is over 50 ER physicals in the city right now," said emergency medicine physician Michael Brodeur.
When the program was created in 2007, it was only one of three in the state. Now, there are 18. The program has been staffed far above the CHRISTUS Graduate Medical Education cap, and it has been privately funded by CHRISTUS Health for many years as a result.
There is a national oversupply of emergency residency slots. This year, 555 emergency medicine slots across the United States went unfilled. That number is up from 2022, when 219 were unfilled, according to the American College of Emergency Physicians. A study sponsored by ACEP found that there will be a surplus of emergency physicians by 2030.
We are proud of the more than 120 graduates we have supported and of the current residents we are supporting today. As a nonprofit health system, CHRISTUS Spohn remains dedicated to the quality and affordable health care we serve to the Coastal Bend. We will continue to focus on making integrated and consumer-focused care more accessible, reliable and personal for all of the people we are blessed to serve, as we extend the healing ministry of Jesus Christ.
"Their actions are saying that this program is not a value to the city, that's its important when it so clearly has been," said wife of ER teaching physician of the program Marilyn Brodeur.
Brodeur moved to the area 10 years ago to start her family and her husband's new career in a program they saw so much potential in.
"At the height of COVID-19, when the ICUs were flooded with patients who had to be on ventilators, the people they asked for help was the emergency medicine residents, program faculty, and residents," she said.
Like Brodeur, many others are standing up for the residents and the program they believe to be crucial to Corpus Christi. Paramedic Salman Ali worked alongside residents from 2019 to 2021 to start a petition.
"I think it's a wonderful program that has educated and graduated over 150 residents. So far, so I knew I had to do something, even all the way in Dallas," he said.
Ali's hope is to present the petition to the city council to demonstrate the program's importance to the community.
"And say 'Hey, we've got all these people that think this program shouldn't end, especially the way it did. It hopes they will have a little bit of say in instating it," he said.
Brodeur said that because of the hospital's social media policy, employees and residents are not speaking out.
"It's just too risky for themselves and their families. And I told them I will say this for you. I will say what's going on, because it's not okay," she said.
Nueces County Commissioner Brent Chesney said he is calling for a special meeting to discuss the program this coming Thursday.
A link to the petition can be viewed here.
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