Internal Medicine

About Internal Medicine at St. John’s

Our Internal Medicine Residency Program has been ACGME Accredited since 1983. The training program is a fully approved three year categorical program and is a major teaching affiliate of the State University of New York Downstate Medical School.

Our expected residency distribution for the coming year is as follows: 20 PGY-1’s, 2 PGY-2’s, and 20 PGY-3’s.

Patients are housed in a state-of-the-art 11 story Patient Care Tower. A new Ambulatory Care Center and Outpatient Dialysis Unit have recently been completed. The hospital is equipped with the most modern invasive and non-invasive monitoring and imaging equipment, thus enabling our staff to care for over 10,000 admissions, 30,000 emergency cases, and more than 34,000 ambulatory care visits per year.

The biomedical laboratories at St. John’s Episcopal Hospital provide a full range of testing on-site and are completely computerized. Terminals to access laboratory data are located in all patient areas, thus making the physician’s job much easier. The Medical Service carries a daily census of approximately 150 patients. This includes patients located in an 8 bed Intensive Care Unit, an 8 bed Coronary Care Unit. On the Teaching Medical Service, approximately 70% are private patients and 30% are service patients. Our patient population reflects the heterogeneous community which we serve. We provide care for patients from all socio-economic classes and all races, with a special emphasis on critical care and geriatric medicine.

A large, active group of voluntary attending physicians complements the salaried faculty to give St. John’s Episcopal Hospital strong representation in both General Internal Medicine and every subspecialty of Internal Medicine.

In addition to the training program in Internal Medicine, St. John’s Episcopal Hospital serves as a teaching site for rotating allopathic residents in Pediatrics, Psychiatry and Rehabilitation Medicine.

St. John’s Episcopal Hospital is an equal opportunity employer.

Accreditations

• Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Residency Review Committee (RRC-ACGME)
• The Joint Commission Certifications
• Emergency Heart Care Station by the American Heart Association
• 911/Level II Trauma Receiving Hospital by New York City Department of Health

Didactics

As a supplement to the broad range of clinical experience we provide, the training program offers an extensive conference schedule. Our weekly Medical Grand Rounds often features eminent speakers from major medical centers all around the country, and our monthly Morbidity/Mortality Conference is a highlight of the educational program. At our monthly Basic Science Conference, speakers from the Medical School present the latest developments in bench research. There are monthly conferences in every subspeciality of Internal Medicine, as well as twice monthly Radiology conferences and a monthly ECG conference.

Residents at St. John’s Episcopal Hospital are actively encouraged to participate in medical research. Clinical projects at the Hospital are ongoing and opportunities for laboratory research are available at the Medical School. St. John’s Episcopal Hospital has been a participating institution in several major international cardiology studies such as the third and fourth versions of the International Study of Infarct Survival (ISIS 3 and ISIS 4). Several publications with residents as co-authors and resident entries into writing competitions have resulted from these efforts.

Curriculum

Inpatient Training

Our relationship with the medical school is a strong one. Medical students rotate to St. John’s Episcopal Hospital during their second year and the medical school faculty provides many teaching conferences. St. John’s Episcopal Hospital residents spend a total of six months at the medical school campus during their training; rotations include General Medicine, Neurology, Cardiology, and electives.

All of the intensive care units at St. John’s Episcopal Hospital have the most up-to-date computerized equipment and are staffed year round with board-certified subspecialists. Residents are assigned to intensive care units a total of five months during their training, and receive additional critical care experience on night float.

Our inpatient floor rotations include rotations in a dedicated telemetry service, a non-telemetry floor service and an admitting team.A team in General Medicine consist of two PGY-1 residents, one PGY-2 resident, and an attending physician.Care is split into a day shift and a night shift.

Outpatient Training

While we remain a Categorical Internal Medicine Training Program with extensive in-patient experience, we have been expanding our emphasis on primary care and ambulatory medicine. Residents attend their medical continuity clinic twice weekly and have a total of four months of ambulatory block rotations in the three years of training. All clinics are directly supervised by faculty, and we have developed a separate ambulatory care curriculum. Our Ambulatory Care Center provides a modern and comfortable environment for patients and staff. Additional ambulatory experience is obtained in subspeciality clinics
and private offices of local voluntary physicians. Areas of emphasis in primary care include Adolescent Medicine, Gynecology, Behavioral Medicine, Preventive Medicine and Public Health. Ambulatory experience is also gained in Orthopedics, ENT Medicine, Neurology, Dermatology, Pediatrics, Geriatric Medicine, and many other fields. Clinical experience is supplemented by ample teaching rounds and a
comprehensive lecture series in general Internal Medicine. By expanding our curriculum in primary and ambulatory care, we are providing residents with the broad skills needed to enter practice in general medicine. At the same time, the training in categorical internal medicine provides residents with the backgrounds to enter subspeciality training.

Electives

Each resident chooses rotations in medicine subspecialties during their Electives. Cardiology. We offer electives in:

• Dermatology
• Endocrinology
• Gastroenterology
• Hematology
• Infectious Disease
• Integrative Medicine
• Nephrology
• Neurology
• Oncology
• Palliative Care
• Pulmonology

On-Call Schedule

Our Program utilizes a night float system of on call. This system means that residents do not work more than 24 hours at a time and have adequate time off between shifts.

Benefits

• Medical Benefits with Blue Cross Blue Shield
• Vision Benefits with Davis Vision
• Dental Benefits with Guardian Insurance
• Vacation: 4 weeks of vacation (paid) each year
• Sick days: 12 days of sick leave per year
• Personal days: 4 days of personal leave per year
• Other leaves offered: Family and medical leave, maternity/paternity leave, marriage leave, disability leave, bereavement leave

Resident Life

Far Rockaway, Queens

We are located on a narrow peninsula at the southeastern end of Queens. Something about the Rockaways just hits the sweet spot: It’s easily accessible by subway; the beach is totally free, spacious, and clean; just a perfectly chill mix of beach bums, families, hipsters, and surfers.

Wellness Events

Wellness events are organized by program leadership and chief residents and usually take place during and after hours. Monthly birthday celebrations ,Resident forum, soccer games are just part of what is offered throughout the month.

CIR (Committee of Interns and Residents/Service Employees International Union)

All residents are part of CIR house staff union, and provide additional resources for education, medical, and professional needs. Additional information regarding benefits can be found via their website St. John’s Episcopal Hospital – Committee of Interns and Residents (cirseiu.org)

Graduates

Our graduates are a mix of internists/subspecialists. Residents who have completed the program at St. John’s Episcopal Hospital are highly sought after for primary care practice positions, hospitalist positions and fellowships. Many are hospitalists or primary care internists with community-based office practice and some have completed fellowships in Pulmonary Medicine, Nephrology, Critical Care, Hematology/Oncology among others and function as consultants.

Current Residents

Chief Residents

Post-Graduate Year 1

Post-Graduate Year 2

Post-Graduate Year 3