Swedish First Hill Family Medicine Residency creates medical home for unhoused seniors

Founded in 1971, the Swedish First Hill Family Medicine residency program has spent the last five decades training doctors and creating close bonds with a diverse community. This program is not just about training doctors—it's about shaping compassionate, well-rounded health care providers who are equipped to handle the complexities of modern medicine. 

Program director and alumnus Ben Davis, M.D., leads 16 faculty members, who teach a curriculum that’s unique among its peers. Nine areas of concentration and two fellowship tracks have allowed Dr. Davis and his team to partner with community programs and make a real difference for Seattle communities that have been economically and/or socially marginalized. That’s evolved into three core partnerships, each with its own faculty and resident champions: LGBTQIA+ health, reproductive justice, and housing and homelessness. 

One of the most special relationships is with Blake House, a 350-unit supportive housing development. The First Hill residents and fellows in the geriatric medicine programs have served as the medical home for Blake House’s residents who live footsteps away from the clinic. Resident physician Emily Thorn, M.D., along with Addiction Medicine fellow and Swedish First Hill alumni Joanna Poceta, M.D., recently held teaching sessions at Blake House on naloxone administration, which can save a life during a drug overdose.  

“It sometimes feels difficult to do everything we want to on top of meeting the educational requirements of a residency program,” Dr. Davis says, “but we have lofty aspirations to provide as much equity as we can to our communities with the wonderful resident and faculty physicians in our program.”