PRIMARY CARE MEDICINE
PGY 1 residents are required to have 4 months experience in primary care medicine. The rotations occur at Maricopa Medical Center and consist of two months on Internal Medicine Ambulatory Care, one month on the Internal Medicine Consult Service and one month in the Emergency Department.
The Ambulatory Care rotation occurs at the Central Healthcare Clinics (CHC) at Maricopa Medical Center. This clinic, which is managed by the Department of Internal Medicine, serves approximately 2100 patients per month. The outpatient population is largely adult (67%) with some geriatric patients (31%) and a few patients under 20 (2%). There is considerable ethnic diversity: Caucasian (35%), Hispanic (46%), African American (14%), Asian (2%), Native American (1%), Other (2%). A large portion of the patient population is indigent or receiving public benefits. Residents are in clinic 4 days per week and see an average of 5 to 8 patients each day. Supervision is provided by upper level medicine residents and Internal Medicine faculty. Residents are expected to provide outpatient continuity services for routine disorders including diabetes, hypertension, migraines, GI disease, etc.
The Internal Medicine Consult Service sees patients throughout the Medical Center, including on the psychiatry units. Residents accompany internal medicine faculty who are covering the service. Residents work up consult patients and present them to faculty.
The Emergency Medicine rotation occurs in the Emergency Department (ED) of Maricopa Medical Center, a large urban public hospital that sees nearly 20,000 admissions a year. Patients come from all over Maricopa County, and there is wide diversity in the patient population with respect to age and ethnicity. Residents evaluate and treat patients coming to the ED for medical problems. Supervision is provided by faculty of the Department of Emergency Medicine and by senior emergency medicine residents. Residents also participate in didactics provided for emergency medicine residents.
While we have chosen largely adult outpatient experiences, since we believe these resemble most closely the kinds of medical encounters psychiatrists have, the residency will work with residents desiring a different experience, for example, pediatric medicine or inpatient internal medicine, to develop a Primary Care Medicine experience that fits the resident’s needs.
Schedules on all primary care medicine rotations are arranged so that residents can attend the weekly didactic day at Desert Vista.
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