Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) said Thursday that its Family Medicine Residency Program has received a $1.9 million federal grant that will be used to train more primary care doctors.

The money-distributed as part of the U.S. government's health reform funds-will be doled out over a five-year period. The award allows HCMC to increase the number of family medicine residents enrolling in first-year classes by two residents per year over that time frame.

In October, HCMC's Family Medicine Residency Program moved to a new, state-of-the-art building at 2810 Nicollet Avenue and was renamed the Whittier Clinic.

Health care reforms underway are recommending a new approach to comprehensive primary care. The approach features “medical homes,” a collaborative care model that involves family medicine physicians, other providers, and the patient.

“Family medicine physicians play a key role in this patient care model,” Dr. Allyson Brotherson, director of the Family Medicine Residency (training) Program, said in a statement. “Thanks to this grant, we're re-designing our curriculum to address many of the aspects of the medical home, with special emphasis on improving the patient's participation in their care and teaching our residents to be leaders of the medical home team.”

HCMC is Minnesota's fourth-largest hospital based on the operating revenue from its 2008 fiscal year, which totaled $572.9 million. It has 910 licensed beds and 466 beds available for use.