SVRHC’s Internal and Family Medicine Residency Program

 

 

Health care delivery and the practice of medicine are evolving at a rapid rate. Primary care physicians are now caring for increasing numbers of patients with increasingly complicated medical illnesses. Furthermore, primary care is being administered in both inpatient and outpatient settings. In order to keep pace with these ever-increasing demands, medical education must also evolve. SVRHC recognized the importance of Internal Medicine and knew we provided an ideal environment for training to occur.

             

The driving forces behind the development of the Residency program are William G. Elliott, D.O. and David Knapp, M.D.   The program was established to give residents the training needed to manage a wide range of clinical, social, and administrative factors that affect health care in rural and urban settings.   Additionally, the medical staff at SVRHC is dedicated to an internal medicine residency that presents current, up-to-date training for interns and residents in various subspecialties.  Doctors of internal medicine focus on adult medicine and have completed special study and training in the prevention and treatment of adult diseases. At least three of the seven or more years of medical school and postgraduate training are dedicated to learning how to prevent, diagnose, and treat diseases that affect adults.  

            

 After formal residency training, it is a priority for practicing physicians to maintain their own skills and to keep abreast of new knowledge. The learning habits and skills that are developed during residency are what allow physicians to stay current.  SVRHC aims to train the next generation of internists and to practice innovative, evidence-based, multi-disciplinary medicine. This solid internal medicine training allows residents to explore varied career opportunities and prepares them to achieve extraordinary professional success while teaching them to provide state-of-the-art patient care in diverse settings.

 

Internal Medicine Graduate Medical Education

Overview and General Information

Located in the beautiful high desert of southeastern Arizona near the foothills of the Huachuca Mountains Sierra Vista Regional Health Center (SVRHC) calls Sierra Vista, Arizona, home. Nestled in the San Pedro River Valley at approximately 4600 feet altitude the climate is ideal with cool winters and pleasant summers. In addition there are spectacular mountain views of multiple mountain ranges including the Huachucas. Population of Sierra Vista is approximately 44,000 and is expanding rapidly and expected to do so in the foreseeable future with concomitant need for additional health care providers. In addition, there is a significant population from Ft. Huachuca, the home of several of the United States Army’s major commands. Sierra Vista Regional Health Center is the major medical facility in Cochise County. The area is widely known for birding, hiking, and bicycling. Historic towns of Bisbee and Tombstone are within a 30-minute drive as is our international neighbor, Mexico. Wintertime skiing is as close as Mt. Lemmon in Tucson and all-season activities are a scenic six-hour drive to the White Mountains. White, sandy beaches and scuba diving and snorkeling are a five-hour drive to Rocky Point and San Carlos, Mexico. Sierra Vista is approximately 90 miles SE of Tucson and 200 miles SE of Phoenix.

 

 

 A New Chapter – Family Medicine

              

SVRHC continues to expand the Residency program with a Family Medicine Residency program while hoping to retain the residents in the community who complete the program. The curriculum provides a specialty track three-year internal medicine residency with the first year qualifying as both an internship and as the first year of residency.  Additional training occurs at SVRHC and in subspecialty medicine through participating hospitals in Tucson. 

 

The Family Medicine Residency at SVRHC started as a joint venture of Sierra Vista Regional Health Center and the Osteopathic Postgraduate Training Institute of Midwestern University.  The residency is designed to produce two, fully trained osteopathic family physicians, each year.  The idea is that the local community will enjoy the benefits of having additional resident physicians in the hospital in Sierra Vista and that hopefully, some of these young doctors will choose to stay and practice in Cochise County.  The program takes doctors who have completed osteopathic medical school and teaches them through educational lectures and on the job experience to be family physicians.  “The program takes three years to complete and once the residency is fully established, there should be six Family Medicine residents at the hospital at any given time,” says Program Director Dr. Marc Kaplan, D.O.  Dr. Kaplan is assisted by Ralph Mayberry M. D. and both Dr Kaplan and Dr. Mayberry have over twenty years experience in family medicine in Sierra Vista.  Dr. William Elliott is the Director of Medical Education and the Residency Program.

The family medicine residents follow the same basic structure as the internal medicine residents so the transition should be seamless.  They do have more clinic time requirements than the internal medicine residents so as they go along in their training they will spend a little less time in the hospital than the internal medicine residents do. They will also spend more time doing subspecialty rotations like pediatrics and obstetrics which the internal medicine residents don’t do at all.               

Facilities and Services

Sierra Vista Regional Health Center is an 88 bed not-for-profit acute care hospital housed on the main campus with an eight-bed ICU and 10-bed telemetry unit. A 21-bed Emergency Department provides emergency services to the region with a hospital based helicopter service. There is a cardiac catheterization laboratory on site. Rehabilitation programs include cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation as well as physical, occupational, speech and sports medicine. Sierra Vista Regional Health Center has a progressive radiology department including MRI, CT, weekly PET/CT services, as well as other imaging modalities. In addition there is a state-of-the-art ambulatory surgery center on our east campus. Hospice, Casa de la Paz, provides hospice care to the region. A Hospitalist program augments clinical services. Residents are trained in our integrated healthcare information system. This system permits full automation and management of clinical and nursing services as well as electronic medical records.

Internship and Residency Opportunities

SVRHC provides a specialty track three-year internal medicine residency with the first year qualifying as both internship and first year of residency. Training will occur both at Sierra Vista Regional Health Center as well as some training in subspecialty medicine at Tucson Medical Center, a 650-bed facility in Tucson. In addition, there is outpatient training experience at Fort Huachuca and at Chiricahua Community Health Centers.

Strengths and Unique Aspects of SVRHC Residency

Sierra Vista Regional Health Center is the dominant health care facility for Cochise County, an area that is growing rapidly. However, there is still a significant rural aspect to the area so it can provide both rural as well as urban type of environments. The medical staff at SVRHC is dedicated to an internal medicine residency that provides current up-to-date training for both interns and residents in a variety of subspecialties as well as general internal medicine. The affiliation with Tucson Medical Center allows residents to experience health care at a major metropolitan hospital. As this is a new residency program incoming interns and residents can expect to have a significant voice in shaping the program for the future.

Contact Information:

SVRHC Graduate Medical Education
For Information: Barbara Jackson, GME Liaison

Barbara.Jackson@svrhc.org

(520) 803-2926
Fax: (520) 417-4507
300 El Camino Real
Sierra Vista, Arizona 85635

Benefits:

Competitive salary, health, life, disability insurance and professional liability insurance.

Applications for residency can be made from the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) on the ERAS – Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) website at www.aamc.org for a July 2007 start date.

Internal Medicine Residency:

1st Year (Counts as both Internship and 1st year of Residency)
General Internal Medicine 4 months
Cardiology 1 month
ICU 1 month
Pulmonary Medicine 1 month
Emergency Medicine 1 month
Surgery 1 month
Ambulatory Medicine 1 month
Electives 2 months
2nd Year
General Internal Medicine 4 months
Gastroenterology 2 months
ICU 1 month
Hematology 1 month
Oncology 1 month
Nephrology 1 month
Endocrine** 1 month
Infectious Disease** 1 month
3rd Year
General Internal Medicine 6 months
ICU 1 month
Cardiology or Pulmonary 1 month
Neurology** 1 month
Rheumatology** 1 month
Electives 2 months
** Rotations to be completed at Tucson Medical Center

SVRHC Data:

Total licensed beds: 88
Occupancy of operational beds 57%
Inpatient admissions 5,600 per annum
Births 1,400 per annum
In/outpatient surgeries 5,500 per annum
Emergency visits 28,000 per annum

Medical Staff:

MD: 79
DO: 11
DPM: 4
Allied Health: 8
Courtesy Staff in a variety of specialties: 38