Training is divided into month-long blocks spent on the various clinical services. Several months of elective rotations are offered each year. In addition, all house officers serve in the General Internal Medicine Clinic one-half day each week. Each team is usually composed of a faculty attending, an upper level resident, two interns and a varying number of medical students. While the attending physician has ultimate responsibility for patients, the housestaff serve as the primary physicians, participating in all management decisions and routinely performing most common medical procedures.
Subspecialty care is provided through consultation on the general medical wards.
In-house call is every fourth night. Daily activities include morning work rounds, Resident Report, attending rounds, a variety of conferences and evening check-out. The average patient load is 15-20 patients per team with interns admitting, on the average, less than 2 patients per day to their team. A separate Hematology-Oncolgy ward service composed of housestaff, fellows, students and faculty cares for patients whose primary problems fall within that subspecialty. A new ward rotation has been created that emphasizes primary care medicine.