• Surgical CV PA Residency Program
• Psychiatry/Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Fellowship

• New APPs complete organizational orientation, clinic onboarding, compliance training, shadowing experiences, and gradual patient ramp-up scheduling. New hires typically begin seeing patients during week two with schedules increasing over the first 3–4 Months.

• Each new graduate APP is assigned a mentor for six months with monthly check-ins.
• Experienced APPs may also request mentorship support.
• Providence APPs with at least two years of primary care experience.

• APPs participate in bi-monthly virtual peer sessions focused on professional development, clinical communication, burnout prevention, motivational interviewing, team-based care, EPIC tips, and shared decision-making.

• Providence partnered with ThriveAP to provide an educational fellowship for new graduates and new-to-primary-care APPs. The program includes weekly 90-minute virtual sessions over the course of one year.

• A central APC fellowship team (director and coordinator) within the Office of Health Professional Education collaborates with department leaders on the development of new programs. The central team oversees system-wide operations, including quality improvement, program finances, HR-related aspects, core curriculum, and support of the program leaders and APC fellows.
• Each program has a program director and medical director who manage day-to-day operations, including scheduling, didactics, evaluations/feedback, and mentorship.
• The APC fellows report to the central director, which helps to align salary, benefits and policies/procedures across programs in our large system.
• The fellowships are 12 months long, except for emergency medicine, which is 18months.
• APC fellows are hired as employees, paid a PGY-1 stipend, and receive full benefits. They spend 50-70% of their time in their home department and the remainder in pertinent specialty rotations.
• The APC fellows’ autonomy grows over the course of the program with an expectation that they are clinically and operationally ready to transition into practice without additional onboarding upon graduation. APC fellows are not required to commit to work at our organization, nor is a position guaranteed, though we do have an overall retention rate of 77%.

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Penn Medicine

Luke Bingaman, MBA, MPAS, PA-C,

Physician Assistant, LGHP Downtown Family Medicine

Associate Director of Advanced Practice, Ambulatory Care & Virtual Medicine

Luke.Bingaman@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

At Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health, we offer a six-month Primary Care APP Onboarding Program designed for APPs who are new to practice or transitioning into a new specialty.

The program follows a residency-style model in which APPs see patients alongside dedicated physicians and APP preceptors, ensuring a well-rounded and collaborative learning experience. Over the six months, patient volume gradually increased. Weekly didactic sessions are integrated throughout the program and include procedural training. Currently, we have candidates entering the program without a permanently assigned practice site. Our goal is to anticipate workforce needs earlier, allowing us to efficiently backfill vacancies and support organizational growth. This structured onboarding approach has led to improved retention, enhanced provider satisfaction, and greater consistency in training and clinical preparedness across our APP workforce.

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Froedtert ThedaCare – South Region

Jennifer Nagy, MD
 Associate Chief Medical Officer – Primary Care
 Family Medicine Physician, Germantown Health Center
 jennifer.nagy@froedtert.com

Froedtert ThedaCare South Region utilizes a standardized, competency-based APP Onboarding Program designed to support successful transition into ambulatory primary care practice. The program promotes clinical readiness, operational consistency, interdisciplinary collaboration, and long-term APP retention.

The onboarding structure includes differentiated pathways for:

Key Program Components

In addition to clinical onboarding, newly hired APPs participate in a monthly two-hour didactic training series during their first six months of employment. These sessions focus on clinical decision-making, operational workflows, professional development, interdisciplinary collaboration, and patient care excellence. The program emphasizes APP confidence, patient access, care quality, and consistency across practice locations while allowing flexibility based on individual experience and competency levels.

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Froedtert ThedaCare – North Region

Monk Elmer Montgomery
 monk.elmer@thedacare.org

Froedtert ThedaCare North Region currently tracks access and scheduling performance through several key metrics:

Providence Medical Group Oregon

Lori Gluck, MD
 Medical Director, Value-Based Care

Lori.Gluck@providence.org

 

North memorial

Meetul Shah
 Meetul.Shah@northmemorial.com

Optum North currently does not utilize formal weighting methodologies for panel size calculations. However, previous experience within the organization included the use of visit-frequency adjustment models that incorporated age and gender demographics.

 

Sutter Medical Group

Michael Conroy, MD
 Michael.conroy@sutterhealth.org

Sutter Medical Group launched a Primary Care APC Residency Program approximately two years ago.

Key program characteristics include:

Duke Primary Care

Kevin Shah, MD, MBA
 Vice President, Duke University Health System
 Chief Medical Officer, Duke Primary Care
 Associate Professor of Medicine

Kevin.shah@duke.edu

Duke Primary Care offers an APP Fellowship Program for primary care, pediatric, and urgent care APPs. The fellowship is a one-year program designed for new graduate APPs and combines didactic education, mentorship, and a partially reduced clinical schedule to allow for additional shadowing and a gradual transition into practice.