Sky Lakes is also a teaching hospital affiliated with Oregon Health & Science University Medical School through the Cascades East Rural Family Medicine Residency Program.

Besides patient care, Sky Lakes also carries out medical research and offers practicum positions for family medicine residents and nursing students through its affiliation with the Oregon Health & Science University.

In the late 1950s, a citizen task force in Klamath County outlined the future healthcare needs of the region, and with a successful fund-drive constructed what is now Sky Lakes Medical Center, which opened in October 1965.

Sky Lakes Medical Center is affiliated with the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) education and research branches, providing internship and practicum positions for over 20 resident physicians in pursuit of their family medicine specialty.

The hospital also works with OHSU, Oregon Institute of Technology and Klamath Community College faculties, supplementing their nursing programs with hands-on clinical exposure.