Elmhurst Hospital Center

Internal Medicine

The Icahn School of Medicine (Elmhurst) Program is a fully accredited categorical three-year program with 15 house staff positions at each level of training leading to eligibility for certification by the American Board of Internal Medicine. The residency, established in 1979 as the Primary Care Internal Medicine Residency Program, provides training over the full spectrum of medical practice from primary through tertiary care.

In July 1992, the Primary Care Internal Medicine Residency Program integrated with The Mount Sinai Hospital. The current residency program has been built on the established strengths, resources, and experiences of the Elmhurst primary care program developed over 31 years, and enriches the training by utilizing the resources of The Mount Sinai Medical Center.

Primary care medicine has been defined as "first contact medicine", which assumes longitudinal responsibility for the health care and preventive health of the patient. Training in primary care medicine extends to areas beyond internal medicine and includes behavioral science and other disciplines which contribute to the provision of the comprehensive health needs of defined populations. The program emphasizes the development of skills in the care of the ambulatory patient including training in the non-medical subspecialties as well as non-clinical areas such as biostatistics and epidemiology.  At the same time, as a part of the Icahn School of Medicine program and as a fully accredited categorical internal medicine program, we focus on training our residents in state-of-the-art specialty medicine practice, preparing them for fellowship training in a range of specialties.  Historically, the career paths chosen by our residents have spanned the spectrum of internal medicine practices, from the most general to the most specialized, and our graduates almost uniformly report to us how well-trained and well-prepared they felt they were to engage in their chosen career.   

Ambulatory Care Experience

Training in Ambulatory Care is provided by a combination of longitudinal experience in the Medical Primary Care Clinic, ambulatory care "block" time, and didactic sessions.  Components of the program are as follows:

Continuity Experience

Each resident develops a primary care practice in the Medical Primary Care Clinic. Beginning the first-year of training, the resident gradually builds his or her patient panels and assumes increasing responsibilities for evaluation and management of patients. A faculty of 25 skilled primary care internists insures a quality teaching environment in the Medical Primary Care Clinic. Attending physicians are assigned to each clinical team exclusively to teach house staff. Great emphasis is placed in the Primary Care Clinic on team-oriented longitudinal and comprehensive health care. House officers are an integral part of the teams, which are composed of residents, attending physicians, nurses, social workers, health educators, patient-care associates, a dietician, a liaison psychiatrist, and administrators. The Medical Primary Care (MPC) clinic, with 60,000 patient visits a year, serves a culturally diverse population, giving residents a wide range of clinical experience.

Ambulatory Care Months

In addition to continuity experience, residents have the opportunity to learn ambulatory practice by rotating through a full range of medical subspecialty and non-medical specialty clinics (e.g., dermatology, gynecology, urology, ophthalmology), as well as having exposure to community-based ambulatory sites.

Didactic Sessions

These include Primary Care Conferences, Subspecialty Conferences, Grand Rounds, Teaching Workshops, Case Conferences, Journal Club, and Interdisciplinary Conferences. There is structured training in communication skills, behavioral sciences, systems-based practice, practice-based learning, and medical ethics.  

Research

All residents receive training in clinical epidemiology, research design, and critical appraisal of the medical literature. They also design and carry out a research/quality improvement project in conjunction with a faculty mentor.

The Department of Ambulatory Care

The Icahn School of Medicine (Elmhurst) Program is administered by the Department of Ambulatory Care, which oversees the Medical Primary Care Clinic and the Diagnostic Walk-In Clinic.

Emergency Medicine

Elmhurst Hospital Center also has a fully accredited Emergency Medicine Residency Program integrated with The Mount Sinai Hospital. All primary care residents receive training as well as didactic teaching in our busy emergency room, which has more than 100,000 visits a year.

Inpatient Medicine

Inpatient rotations at Elmhurst and Mount Sinai include general medical wards, medical consult service, respiratory and cardiac intensive care units, medical subspecialty electives, renal dialysis unit, neurology, and geriatrics. See the schedule for details.

Residency Training Program Rotations

The training year is divided into 13 blocks each of 4-weeks duration.  There is one block or 2 half-blocks of vacation per year. 

PGY-1

Residents rotate through the General Medicine wards, Renal Service, Neurology Service, and Emergency Room at Elmhurst Hospital Center. At The Mount Sinai Hospital, residents rotate through the Medicine Inpatient Units and are offered an Elective block. There is one ambulatory block.

PGY-2

Residents rotate through the General Medicine wards, CCU and RICU at Elmhurst Hospital Center. At The Mount Sinai Hospital, residents rotate through medical subspecialty services and inpatient specialty units via an Elective block, and through the ambulatory care clinics via an ambulatory block rotation. There are three ambulatory blocks.

PGY-3

Residents serve as ward chiefs at Elmhurst Hospital Center, as senior residents in the Emergency Room, and teaching residents on the medical consultation service. Residents have medical subspecialty rotations at Elmhurst Hospital. There are three ambulatory blocks.

Internal Medicine at Elmhurst Hospital Center

The Department of Medicine at Elmhurst Hospital Center, with Joseph Masci, M.D., Director, is responsible for four major teaching units of approximately 30-40 beds each (total 145 beds). In addition, the Department has a state-of-the-art intensive care unit with 10 beds for cardiac intensive care and eight beds for respiratory intensive care under the direction of full-time board-certified attending staff and fellows in training in the respective areas of cardiology and pulmonary/critical care medicine. The Department also has a comprehensive renal dialysis unit.

The Department of Medicine has a very large board-certified attending staff with all of the subspecialties represented by full-time attending physicians who directly supervise and educate residents in the inpatient areas and subspecialty clinics. In addition, the Department maintains a faculty attending in the hospital 24-hours a day, seven days a week for on-site supervision, training of house staff, and consultations.  The hospital has fellows training in most of the medical specialties through fellowship programs integrated with Mount Sinai, as well as our own accredited fellowship programs in Nephrology and Gastroenterology.

Competitive salary and benefits.

For Information and application, contact:
Lawrence Reich, M.D.
Director, Primary Care Internal Medicine
Department of Medicine
Residency Program
The Mount Sinai Hospital
Box 8000
One Gustave L. Levy Place
New York, NY 10029
Tel: (718) 334-2490