Clinical Rotations

In this section:

 

Our program's clinical curriculum is structured to a 6+2 model.  This block scheduling greatly benefits the residents as it:

 

  • Decreases conflicting inpatient and outpatient responsibilities, thereby reducing resident stress and work hours while on inpatient rotations.
  • Provides automatic decompression in a resident's schedule by removing the possibility of >2 continuous months of more intense rotations.
  • Increases outpatient continuity for routine follow-up visits as well as increasing total number of continuity clinic days each year.
  • Increases ownership and satisfaction in the ambulatory setting; more realistically models today's primary care practice.
  • Provides ability to deliver consistent curriculum (Friday academic half-days) where we often put our most important curriculum and simulation training that reaches every resident in our program.



General Medicine Service (University Teaching Service - UTS)

General Facts
  • Throughout the three years of training, each resident spends about 10 months on the UTS.
  • The residents have the opportunity to work with award-winning educators including academic hospitalists and general internists.
  • Residents experience significant autonomy balanced with appropriate supervision and daily teaching by the attending physician.
  • While rotating on UTS, the residents have protected time for educational conferences.
  • We have a dedicated medicine floor to geographically cohort the majority of our UTS patients.
  • Each UTS team has a fully stocked rounding room.

Team Structure

  • We have five teams taking care of all patients admitted to the UTS: Gold, Diamond, Silver, Sapphire and Emerald.
  • Each team, with the exception of Emerald, consists of one teaching attending, one upper-level resident (PGY2 or PGY3), two interns and one or two students.  The Emerald team provides a unique experience in which two upper-level residents (PGY2 or PGY3) run the team with the help of sub-interns (MS4) and a supervising attending.
  • Usually the teams have one categorical medicine intern, plus one intern from neurology, creating an excellent opportunity to exchange knowledge and improve the learning experience.
  • Second- and third-year residents are responsible for teaching, leadership and supervision of interns.


Patient Population

  • The residents have the opportunity to see a wide variety of patients admitted from the ED, ICU, the Primary Care Clinic (PCC), Primary Care Group Clinics (i.e., Bellaire, Pearland), Department of Medicine Subspecialty Clinics and outside hospital transfers.
  • The UTS fosters an optimal learning environment with the opportunity to see patients from various backgrounds and socioeconomic statuses ranging from non-resourced patients presenting with advanced pathology to complex cases referred to Houston Methodist for advanced interventions.
  • The diversity and advanced pathology from patients of all backgrounds is conveniently seen under one roof.

 

Medical Students

  • Since 2015 Houston Methodist has a partnership with Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine and functions as one of their regional campuses, which means that the students spend their entire clinical training at Houston Methodist.  In addition, Houston Methodist has affiliations with Weill Cornell Medical College and University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas.
  • In 2018 Houston Methodist and Texas A&M started EnMed, an innovative engineering medical school program to train "physicianeers".
  • Throughout the 3 years of residency training, trainees are given a vast opportunity to teach medical students in a multitude of rotations.
  • Medical students rotating on UTS are either completing their Clerkship or Acting Internship.
  • Medical students are key members of our UTS care team.
  • The responsibility to teach second, third and fourth-year medical students rotating through UTS develops the resident's teaching skills throughout the training period.

 

Paper Amol 

 

 

 

Continuity Clinic (Primary Care Clinic-PCC)

 

Houston Methodist’s Primary Care Clinic (PCC) is a resident-run continuity clinic where residents and interns see their own panel of patients during a weekly half-day clinic session.  Each clinic session has a total of four to eight residents (a combination of interns and upper levels), and 1-2 attending physicians.

 

PCC Huddle 

 

General PCC Facts

  • Each resident sees new and established patients, post-hospital discharge visits, pre-operative consultations, sick visits and preventative health (wellness) visits.
  • Residents will become experienced in managing a broad spectrum of outpatient conditions seen frequently in primary care.
  • The PCC is adjacent to the faculty practice and provides easy access for patients requiring subspecialty consultations.
  • The electronic health record (EHR), Epic, provides an opportunity to improve patient care using the latest technology.
  • Residents are supervised by a group of primary care attendings allowing for the development of a long-term mentoring relationship.
  • Patients are seen in a newly renovated, on-site facility with accommodations for an optimal educational experience.
  • Online modules enhance the educational experience in the PCC by providing access to high-yield learning topics frequently encountered in the ambulatory setting.
  • Pre-clinic huddles are attended by the clinic team (residents, MA's and attendings) for 30 minutes prior.  This time is used for reviewing the daily schedule and identifying any potential patient needs.  The remaining time is used to discuss a high yield ambulatory topic assigned from the Yale Curriculum.
  • During the pandemic, our Primary Care Clinic has incorporated virtual visits and we are fully equipped to perform telemedicine to ensure continuity of care for our patients.
  • For those interested in pursuing a primary care career, staring the second year of residency, residents are given the opportunity to relocate their continuity clinic to work with a primary care physician in the Houston Methodist community.  This experience provides a true primary care setting and the mentorship required to understand what it means to be a primary care provider.

 

 

 

Curriculum Schedule:


Curriculum 2022-2023