Family Medicine Residency Curriculum

Introduction:

Rotations at Ellis encompass the variety within family medicine while also developing resident-specific interests.  Notable strengths within the curriculum include inpatient medicine, obstetric care, women’s health, addiction medicine, and community/global health.  Each academic year consists of 13 blocks (4 weeks per block).

Ambulatory Care:

Our longitudinal ambulatory care encourages patient continuity in a healthcare home setting. Thanks to an exceptional preceptor panel, residents can confidently diagnose and manage complex patients while also exploring their individual interests in specialty systems. Ambulatory care at the Family Health Center is capped off with in-house specialty/minor-surgical clinics and a strong case-management network to provide humanistic care to our patient population.  Residents will have continuity clinic in our Family Health Center.  The number of clinic sessions generally increases with progression throughout training years.

Community Medicine:

Ellis Family Medicine is committed to raising community advocates. In line with caring for underserved populations, the residency runs free clinics at two homeless shelters weekly while also participating in seasonal clinics for migrant workers. A further month-long block is committed to evaluating health-care resources in the community during the second year of residency.

Internal Medicine:

Inpatient curriculum is focused on producing family physicians capable of providing excellent care to a diverse impatient population.  For 2 months each year, residents provide primary-team care to our diverse patient population. The inpatient team is headed by faculty from the residency program which further provides relational continuity during a more difficult rotation. The acuity at Ellis Hospital further contributes to depth of training with inpatient management of multiple tertiary diseases. All major subspecialties are accessible to the resident team for our patient care.  Many of our graduates have been able to take Hospitalist positions upon graduating without needing additional inpatient fellowship.

ICU:

Ellis supports a robust 36-bed unopposed ICU rotation where residents build personal relationships with intensivists and may elect to perform virtually all critical-care procedures. Continuity for care of Family Health Center patients extends to the ICU where our patients will always receive care from our resident team. The two months of ICU experience further enhance ability for medical management while also allowing for further exploration for individual interest in critical care medicine. 

Women’s Health:

Ellis places strong emphasis on impactful changes to women’s health for our low-income community. Outpatient, emphasis is placed on reproductive counseling, preventative screening, antepartum care and management of GYN pathology. Residents receive training to place multiple forms of LARC, which may be scheduled into clinic days or dedicated LARC clinics. Complex GYN pathology is seen by residents alongside our OBGYN faculty at the in-house clinic where patients receive higher-level medical management and surgery consultation if warranted.       

Given our complicated OB population, residents are well supported to identify and manage diseases in pregnancy. With consultations available to the aforementioned OBGYN clinic as well as a dedicated Ellis MFM department, residents can feel confident following nearly all OB patients. The program provides coverage for residents to attend delivery of continuity OB patients whenever possible. 

Inpatient Obstetrics:

Inpatient OB curriculum is positive, rigorous, and rewarding. In addition to complete management of Family Health Center patients with residency faculty, our Family Medicine Residents also manage/deliver the majority of the community-physicians’ patients. Community patients are seen with in-house OB hospitalists who are focused on encouraging residency development and promoting an uncommonly nurturing atmosphere. Residents graduate with well-over the required vaginal deliveries after the allotted 3 blocks/months during the program. 

Emergency Medicine:

Residents will spend 3 months rotating through emergency rooms owned by Ellis hospital. Notably, the new Clifton Park Emergency Room is also available for residents and features a lower acuity urgent/emergent care population with continued access to on-site diagnostic testing and imaging. As with all other rotations, no other residents are present on site meaning that our family medicine residents receive personalized training and access to any ED procedures.

1 block = 4 weeks