Clinical Rotation: Ambulatory Care

Internal Medicine residents work in a variety of ambulatory care settings, including a hospital-based family health center (FHC), and offices of physicians in private practice in the community. 

Primary Care
Categorical residents follow a panel of patients at the Family Health Center (FHC), a freestanding ambulatory care center that functions as a private office.  Residents are responsible for the ongoing care of their patients - scheduled continuity visits, episodic care, returning telephone calls, and following up on all tests.  The FHC has excellent support staff to help residents work efficiently.  Residents spend an average of one half-day/week in the FHC throughout their three years of training.

Residents have a two or three month rotations in Ambulatory Care during the second and third years.  This elective is divided between seeing urgent care and continuity patents in the FHC. This rotation allows residents to concentrate on perfecting skills for managing medical problems in the ambulatory setting.

Specialty Care
Residents work in the practices of private attendings during subspecialty electives.  They also work in the specialty clinics at the FHC, and so get the opportunity to observe the spectrum of disease and disease management in different settings.

Geriatrics
Residents participate in a rotation at the Jewish Home for the Elderly.  This outstanding academic facility trains residents from several surrounding hospitals and Yale University.  Residents learn comprehensive care of the elderly, including geriatric assessment and the importance of the multi-disciplinary approach.  During this rotation, residents also work within the community and accompany Geriatricians to patients' homes.  They learn how to deliver care to the homebound, and gain first-hand experience of the impact of healthcare services outside the traditional medical establishment.