Our program is the only GME program based at Forbes Hospital, so there is no competition for medical patients. Anesthesia, emergency medicine, general surgery, podiatry, psychiatry and radiology residents rotate through their own services at Forbes, so there is opportunity for interaction without competition. Each rotation provides you with the challenge of direct responsibility for patient care under the continual, appropriate supervision of attending physicians. Your second-year pediatrics, medicine and obstetrics rotations allow you to teach and work with first-year family medicine residents. There are also opportunities in all three years to teach medical students.
Outpatient office, hospital medicine, obstetrics and pediatrics rotations are all completed at Forbes Hospital with the exception of one 6-week block of ED and inpatient pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. Call is otherwise never taken at another hospital. The number of admissions is capped so that residents have time to learn from each patient.
The call schedule is arranged so that residents potentially manage all types of patients (medicine, pediatrics, obstetric) at all points during the year, instead of limiting the exposure to one area of medicine to the few months they are on that service. The call-to-call variety of coverage is similar to the experience in practice after residency.
Frequency: On average, first-year residents are on call 3 times per month, second-year residents about 2 times per month, and third years, once a month. There is no week day call because of our night float program, and residents rotate through 24 hr calls on Fridays and Saturdays and a 12-hr Sunday shift. Third- and second-year residents supervise first-year residents at all times.
Exposure: Residents handle admissions to their own services, as well as respond to calls/"rapid responses" regarding acute problems, such as chest pain, shortness of breath or abdominal pain. Residents are not responsible for routine problems or orders on all patients in the hospital.
Night Float: There are two residents on Night Float, one senior resident (third- or second-year resident) and one first-year resident. The senior resident supervises the first-year resident. Night Float runs from Sunday night through Friday morning.
Attending Coverage: Residents call the attending physicians directly to discuss their findings and plan the course of action. There is always a pediatrician in the hospital who provides 24-hour continuity of pediatric education and an intensivist for critically ill patients. While on call, residents also answer phone calls from the Family Medicine Center patients.
