HEALTH CARE : Kaiser Permanente to Open Family Residency Program

The help wanted sign is up at Kaiser Permanente, the giant health maintenance organization.

Capitalizing on the idea that cutting back on specialists, such as cardiologists and neurologists, and increasing the number of certified family physicians is key to holding down spiraling health care costs, the Oakland-based HMO is opening a family medicine residency program at its Anaheim Hills hospital.

The company said it has sent out 2,000 brochures to medical schools and students nationwide and has already received 100 replies. Six family practice residents will be picked for the new three-year program, which is slated to begin in July, 1994.

Kaiser has five other family medicine residency programs across the state, providing training for 67 residents, said Dr. Timothy Munzing, head of the program. Within three years, the company plans to have 105 residents, graduating about 35 a year.

But Orange County is desperately short of family physicians. By the end of the decade, the county will need an additional 600 family physicians to fill the growing need, Munzing said.

“Family physicians can take care of wide variety of needs,” he said. “They take care of patients from the cradle to the grave.”