The Rio Bravo Family Medicine Residency Program (RBFMRP), sponsored by Clinica Sierra Vista, is an ACGME-accredited residency program dedicated to training compassionate, culturally responsive family physicians committed to serving medically underserved communities. Approved by the ACGME Family Medicine Residency Review Committee on October 16, 2013, the program welcomed its first class of six PGY-1 residents in July 2014 and graduated its inaugural class in June 2017.
Since 2019, the program has expanded to accept 10 residents per year, growing its capacity to meet the increasing need for primary care physicians throughout California's Central Valley. During the 2024-2025 academic year, RBFMRP welcomed its largest intern class to date and continued to strengthen its role as a leader in community-based medical education.
Residents provide comprehensive care across a variety of settings, including outpatient clinics, hospitals, addiction treatment programs, and street medicine initiatives. In the 2024-2025 academic year alone, residents completed nearly 15,000 outpatient visits at East Niles Community Health Center and more than 10,000 inpatient encounters at Kern Medical, delivering essential care to thousands of patients throughout the region.
The primary mission of the Rio Bravo Family Medicine Residency Program is to train and retain highly skilled, culturally competent family physicians dedicated to improving health outcomes for underserved populations. Through a strong focus on community health, addiction medicine, street medicine, and whole-person care, the program continues to prepare the next generation of healthcare leaders for the Central Valley and beyond.
The program emphasizes hands-on learning through robust clinical experiences and advanced procedural training.
About Us
RBFMRP is sponsored by Clinica Sierra Vista (CSV). The RBFMRP complies with the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Common Program Requirements and the Special Requirements for Residency Training in Family Medicine.
Our mission: To Seek, Teach, and Serve
With a deep commitment to serving the underserved, RBFMRP strives to:
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Educate and train high-quality family medicine residents in multicultural, rural, and underserved settings.
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Support a family medicine-centered education service and research in Kern County.
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Facilitate developing and sustaining a regional service-education network for family physicians and allied health professionals.
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Serve in a general capacity to facilitate, research, and organize innovative approaches to health care in family and community medicine.
Goals of the Rio Bravo Family Medicine Residency Program
RBFMRP promotes and advocates for:
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Excellence in medical education.
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Facilitate the selection of practice sites in the Central San Joaquin Valley.
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Provide ongoing support in practice through continuing medical education efforts, research activities, and program educational activities.
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Develop and implement the health team concept in this region's care delivery system.
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Respect for residents' seeing.
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Instruct residents in longitudinal care of their patients with an understanding of the impact of psychosocial factors on their health and well-being.
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Teach residents the principles of health maintenance, disease prevention, health education, and community-oriented primary care, in addition to caring for a broad range of acute and chronic problems encompassing the fields of pediatrics, adult medicine, and OB/GYN.
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Highest quality patient care.
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Sustain learning environments that foster academic excellence, inspire the highest standards of professionalism, and ensure the delivery of safe, high-quality care to patients.
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Serve in a general capacity to facilitate, research, and organize innovative approaches to health care in family and community medicine.