Residency/Fellowship

Beth Israel Residency Program in Internal Medicine

Overview
Administrative Faculty
About Our Program
Research and Scholarly Activity
Divisions
The "Learn and Earn" Work-Study Program
Other Innovative Programs
Other Information/House Staff Schedule
For More Information/How to Apply

 


 

OVERVIEW

Beth Israel Medical Center's residency program in Internal Medicine provides outstanding clinical training, research opportunities and preparation for a career in either academic or clinical practice. These endeavors are carried out in a humane, respectful and supportive environment for trainees with the delivery of compassionate, high-quality care a guiding principle.

The training program has undergone tremendous growth in recent years, keeping pace with the increasing and challenging needs of the community the Medical Center serves. The training program is a leader in dealing with the rapid changes taking place in medical technology, and with the various educational and professional needs of the department's residents. Our growth has included the development of outstanding modern facilities for the delivery of outpatient care by the attending and resident staff.

The full-time faculty has more than 80 members, many of whom have joint appointments in more than one division, providing for significant interaction within the department and throughout the institution.

The voluntary staff consists of more than 200 physicians, representing all disciplines of internal medicine. All faculty members are board certified or eligible, hold faculty appointments at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and are involved in training residents on inpatient services and in the subspecialty medicine teaching programs. Almost 20% of the full-time faculty participates in the ambulatory general medicine teaching program. Most of the patients on the 300-bed medical service are admitted through the Emergency Department, which treats more than 60,000 patients annually. The patient mix is well balanced and represents the cultural and socioeconomic diversity of Beth Israel's metropolitan location. Residents are responsible for and play a major role in the care of all of these patients, including continuity of care between inpatient and ambulatory settings.

Functioning as a teacher is a major part of the house staff experience at Beth Israel. Residents teach in the clerkship program for second-, third- and fourth-year students from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Second-year students learn the rudiments of physical diagnosis, third-year students function as clinical clerks, and fourth-year students rotate on the medicine service as subinterns, integrated completely with the house staff. Most importantly, residents teach each other in a series of increasingly responsible roles. The Albert Einstein students view us as a highly desirable site for training and the Department of Medicine consistently earns outstanding ratings from the students.

ADMINISTRATIVE FACULTY

Henry C. Bodenheimer, MD Acting Chairman, Department of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Digestive Diseases, Beth Israel Nedical Center,
Professor of Medicine, AECOM
Adrienne M. Fleckman, MD Director, Residency Training Program
Associate Chairperson, Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Medical Center; Professor of Clinical Medicine and Assistant Dean, AECOM
Jeanne M. Carey, MD Senior Assoicate Director, Residency Training Program
Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine, AECOM
Daniel I. Steinberg, MD Associate Director, Residency Training Program; Attending Physician and Hospitalist, Department of Medicine; Assistant Professor of Medicine, AECOM

DIVISIONS

ABOUT OUR PROGRAM

The Chief Medical Residents are a major force on the medical service. In addition to accomplishing the miracles of scheduling and conferences, they are an invaluable resource for teaching, conducting rounds, disseminating medical literature and overseeing all educational aspects of the program. Through the initiatives of the chief medical residents, new programs are proposed and accomplished.

Educational Program: The primary goal of Beth Israel's residency training program in Medicine is to provide the trainee with advanced medical knowledge, progressive experience in clinical decision-making and the opportunity to practice medicine in an environment of clinical excellence. Training occurs in an atmosphere of openness, where residents are encouraged to raise questions and contribute ideas.

A written curriculum, which contains the program's educational objectives and the competencies to be demonstrated, exists for each rotation or major learning experience. House staff can access the curriculum on the hospital computer network's shared ResTrain Directory. Each team reviews the curriculum with their teaching attending at the beginning of each rotation and refers to it frequently throughout the rotation. In addition, various multidisciplinary conferences are held regularly, exploring a full range of topics in contemporary medicine.

Residents' education also includes teaching rounds, clinical conferences, grand rounds, clinical pathology conferences, journal clubs and lectures. Major emphasis is placed on the residents' ambulatory practice and development of primary care skills. On the inpatient medical service, a team of hospitalists serve as the attending physicians for the majority of the patients. By encouraging the house staff to take a proactive role in the management of their patients and by welcoming questions and discussions, the hospitalists provide a great deal of clinical teaching.

Patient Rounds: Residents start the day by leading bedside teaching and work rounds with the team. Team members review the progress of each patient, incorporating patient management with opportunities for informal medical discussion.

Attending Rounds: Medical teams present and discuss patients during rounds with their teaching attendings. Case management is discussed within the context of pathophysiology and patient care, incorporating new developments.

Chairman's Rounds: The Chairman rounds with one of the ward teams each week. House staff have the opportunity to present and discuss patients and philosophy with their Chief of Medicine.

Residents' Morning Report: In a dynamic, interactive forum, house staff meet with the chief medical residents, Dr. Fleckman, Dr. Steinberg and Dr. Carey and select faculty to discuss interesting and instructive cases. Residents present patients, concentrating on the most challenging aspects, and chief medical residents incorporate the latest medical literature.

Resident Case Presentation and Literature Review: Residents are mentored by a senior faculty member to present and discuss one case in depth, with emphasis on differential diagnosis, clinical problem solving and expert subspecialty discussion. The format of these conferences encourages their presentation at national conferences in abstract form.

Primary Care Conferences: One conference per week for all residents is dedicated to the primary care curriculum. Outside speakers from many disciplines discuss topics that are important for the delivery of care to patients in the ambulatory setting in addition to presentations by the general medical and subspecialty medicine faculty that impact on outpatient care. Residents attend additional primary care conferences at the general medical clinic during their ambulatory block rotations.

Noon Conference: Following the core curriculum lecture series on managing acute medical problems given each July and August, daily noon conferences are the forum for review of major topics in the curriculum, recent advancements, discussions of ethics, morbidity and mortality, and the weekly ambulatory medicine series.

The following conferences further address the department's curricular goals.

Interns' Core Curriculum: Using the Socratic method, the chief medical residents direct the interns through a twice-weekly seminar discussing physiology, pathophysiology and treatment in a relaxed environment. Major areas of internal medicine are covered in this year-long curriculum.

Residents' Research Grand Rounds: Conferences are presented by the medical residents to the residents and senior faculty, constituting a research seminar by residents performing clinical or bench research or a comprehensive scholarly review including basic science background and future directions of a select research topic in clinical medicine that focuses on a major article.

Residents' Board Review: Residents meet weekly throughout the year with the chief medical residents and/or faculty for an in-depth review of internal medicine topics with the goal of guiding study and maximizing preparation for the American Board of Internal Medicine certification examination. Our Board passage rate is superb.

Evidence Based Medicine Journal Club: Residents present and analyze controversial and important journal articles from the recent literature and are joined by faculty members with expertise in the area.

Clinicopathologic Conference (CPC): Each month, residents present current cases of extraordinary interest, with outstanding CPC-style discussion by attendings from medicine, pathology and radiology.

Grand Rounds: Each week, Beth Israel faculty and invited speakers discuss or lecture on topics of major interest, cases from the Beth Israel service or current advances in the field.

Basic and Clinical Research Series: In the summer full time faculty present basic science background and principles of informed consent, rights of research subjects and fundamentals of clinical research. This series is reinforced throughout the year with talks by invited speakers and with activities designed by the resident-faculty Research Committee including "Research Fairs" and poster presentations.

Subspecialty Conferences: In addition to the above conferences specifically given for the residents, each division holds weekly subspecialty conferences, frequently including prestigious outside speakers.

Computerized Simulation Training: Using a computerized patient simulator, house staff receive instruction in emergency airway management as well as code leader and code team training.

RESEARCH: The training program is committed to providing the scientific foundation for residents to understand the therapies and care of their patients in the 21st Century. We also provide excellent opportunities to perform basic research (most often pursued by those residents interested in academic subspecialty training) and clinical research for residents interested in primary care outcomes research or clinical trials. The vast majority of residents conduct productive research projects, ranging from case reports or retrospective reviews to prospective clinical and laboratory studies. Departmental faculty members are available to provide consultation and collaboration in residents' research projects. Elective rotations can be grouped to allow significant blocks of research time. There are approximately 100 research projects under way in the department. Residents are co-authors on more than 40 publications and abstracts each year. Various competitive grants sponsored by the Medical Center are available to support resident research. The Department also provides funding and educational leave time for resident to present their research at national meetings.


"LEARN AND EARN" WORK STUDY PROGRAM

In addition to our traditional residency training program in internal medicine, Beth Israel Medical Center offers a parallel approach to internal medicine training. This approach is a combination work-study program, which we call our Learn and Earn program. Training begins with the standard medicine categorical internship. Following the internship, the two years of a medical residency are distributed over three years, eight months each year. The participant spends four months of each year (after the internship) working as a physician in a Beth Israel Medical Center-affiliated inpatient or outpatient facility. A New York State license is required for this role. Therefore, applicants must be eligible for licensure in New York State after their internship. During training months, the resident is paid at the house officer rate corresponding to his or her total months of training. During working months, the resident is paid at the augmented rate of a full-time house physician, resulting in over $100,000 in incremental income over that provided by the residency. The resident continuously receives house officer benefits throughout the four years, including housing and disability, as well as health and malpractice insurance.

This approach accomplishes several goals for Beth Israel, such as increasing the number of high-quality physicians providing primary care in non-training settings and providing new avenues for recruiting residents. However, the Learn and Earn program also offers advantages to residents. Their quality of life is greatly improved and residents may emerge debt-free from training. The resident matriculating in the Learn and Earn program will be joining a well-established, accredited residency training program in Internal Medicine. Timing and financial rewards are the only real differences in training between this program and Beth Israel's traditional training program in Internal Medicine.

OTHER INNOVATIVE PROGRAMS

Sabbath Program
The Department of Medicine at Beth Israel Medical Center provides a special program designed to accommodate Sabbath observant Jewish residents. These residents are exempt from hospital duties on the Jewish Sabbath (Friday evening to Saturday evening), as well as, certain Jewish Holidays. However, the total number of hours worked is equivalent among all medicine residents. This schedule allows the observant Jewish resident to acquire premium medical training while not violating the Sabbath.

Japanese Medical Residency Program
As part of Beth Israel's continuing efforts to address cross-cultural issues and broaden the resident's experience, the Medical Center offers training opportunities to medical students who are bilingual in Japanese and English. In 1990, Beth Israel established the Japanese Medical Practice to respond to the medical needs of New York's Japanese population and the more than half-million travelers who visit New York City each year. The practice has offices in Manhattan and Westchester County. Graduating residents have the opportunity to stay on as practicing physicians to serve this community. The program is supported by a grant by Tokio Marine and Fire Insurance Company, Ltd., one of the world's largest insurance companies.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Residents Schedule
The Beth Israel Residency Program in Internal Medicine has seen a major re-commitment to primary care training. All categorical residents now have a minimum of four ambulatory continuity "blocks" in the training program (in addition to weekly continuity clinic). During their inpatient rotations, residents work closely with hospitalists and other attending physicians to learn how to communicate and coordinate discharge planning and continuity with the primary care physician following a patient's hospitalization.

Beth Israel has dealt innovatively with the New York State requirements for reduced residents' hours, implementing a plan, which assures the provision of resident education in all clinical activities and the continuity of high-quality patient care. House staff are on call until 9:00 pm every fourth day. Night float teams relieve the on-call day teams at 8:00 pm. Interns and residents spend one month each year (in two-week blocks) working on the night float medical team. Each morning, members of the night float team join their respective medical teams to present patients they have admitted the previous night and to give a detailed sign-out to ensure smooth continuity of care. Night float periods are usually scheduled before or after vacation.

The year is divided into 13 four-week blocks with elective time each year. Elective rotations can be used to pursue research projects or to gain extra clinical experience in an area of the house officer's choice

Sample House Officer Yearly Schedule

PGY-1

 

PGY-2

 

PGY-3

           
Inpatient
Medical Units*
7-8 blocks-
4 wks ea
Inpatient Medical Units* 4 blocks Inpatient Medical Units* 4 blocks
Ambulatory
Medicine-
Categorical
1 block Ambulatory
Medicine
2 blocks Ambulatory
Medicine
1 blocks
CCU 1 block MICU 1 block CCU 1 block
MICU 1 block Neurology 1 block MICU 1 block
Emergency Medicine 1 block Geriatrics 1 block Emergency Medicine 1 block

Elective

1 block Electives 3 blocks Medical Consult 1 block
Vacation 1 block Vacation 1 block Electives 3 block
            Vacation 1 block

* Inpatient units include night float (4 weeks per year) and general medicine, as well as specialty units such as cardiology, infectious diseases, oncology and pulmonology

Library, Informatics and Computer Access
In addition to the Medical Center library, a house staff library provides full Internet access to all of the electronic holdings of both the Beth Israel and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine libraries. The department library for house staff and computer center are located in Baird Hall and are accessible 24 hours a day to residents and medical students. Each resident is given Beth Israel e-mail and has access from all computers on the network to the on-line textbook of medicine "Up-To-Date" and to the "Res-Train" directory with schedules, manuals, board review information, MKSAP and other materials pertinent to the training program. The department purchases individual subscriptions to "Up-to-Date" for all residents. An electronic order entry system is utilized by nurses and physicians for order entry, medication charting, vital signs and results retrieval on all inpatient services. Residents have access to radiological patient studies over the intranet and are trained in PowerPoint presentations.

The Patient Care Team
Beth Israel offers a cooperative, supportive environment. The nursing staff is among the finest anywhere and all members of the health care team work closely together. This environment supports the goal that resident duties be limited whenever possible to activities that only a physician can perform. The hospital provides excellent ancillary services, including transport staff, clerks, phlebotomists and IV teams to facilitate patient care.

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Applications for positions in our residency program will be processed through ERAS (Electronic Residency Application Service). Inquiries concerning the philosophy, content or form of the program should be addressed to:

Cynthia Dominguez
Manager, Internal Medicine Residency Training Program
Department of Medicine
Beth Israel Medical Center
First Avenue at 16th Street
20th Floor, Baird Building
New York, NY 10003
(212) 420-4012
E-mail:intmed@chpnet.org