Emphasis on education and training

The priority of the program is to provide residents with comprehensive training including a strong academic curriculum incorporating the core competencies of family medicine. Although our residents provide a plethora of valuable services to patients in the hospital and surrounding communities, we do not sacrifice their education for that service. Our program abides by all of the work hour guidelines established by the ACGME.

Strong ambulatory experience

The program utilizes two family medicine centers, one located within 10 minutes of Mount Carmel West hospital and one adjacent to Mount Carmel St. Ann's. Each center has multiple examination and procedure rooms in addition to a conference room. The centers are staffed by faculty, nursing and office staff dedicated to providing our residents with a solid teaching experience during their ambulatory training. Residents select one of the centers as the location for their outpatient experience. In the first year, about 10 percent of your time is spent seeing patients in one of the centers. During your second year, you will treat patients in the center three half-days per week, continuing to build a patient base that you carry through into the third year. In this final year, you will spend half of your time seeing patients in the family medicine center. You will have a chance to treat a diverse community of patients of all ages and socioeconomic groups. Approximately 85 percent of our patients have some form of insurance with 16 percent Medicare and 31 percent Medicaid.

State-of-the-Art Medical Technology

Mount Carmel's commitment to medical informatics training is a unique feature of our program. Each of our family medicine centers has an electronic medical record (EMR) system. All patient chart information is located in the EMR and paper charts are no longer used. The EMR also permits automatic prescription faxing to local pharmacies, ordering diagnostic and laboratory tests, updating of patient medical history and other innovative features. In addition, all Mount Carmel hospitals utilize an EMR system which interacts with the system at the family medicine centers. All residents receive a Compaq iPAQ Pocket PC Handheld computer which interacts with the EMR system in the hospitals.

Academic focus with nationally recognized faculty

Our program faculty consists of full-time staff and volunteer community preceptors with extensive backgrounds in the field of academic and clinical medicine services, clinical research, and publications in nationally-recognized medical literature, and business expertise in operation of private family medicine practices. All have clinical faculty appointments at The Ohio State University (OSU) College of Medicine and the Boonshoft School of Medicine at Wright State University (WSU) along with professional appointments on numerous state and national organizations such as American Academy of Family Physicians, Society for Teachers for Family Medicine, American Medical Association, American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Ohio Academy of Family Physicians. Each faculty member compliments the program with his or her own special interest and training emphasis in such areas as Sports Medicine, Adolescent Health, Geriatrics, Obstetrics, Women's Health and other fields.

Emphasis on scholarly activity, including research for residents and faculty

Scholarly activity is encouraged at Mount Carmel. Both residents and faculty are supported in their interest in conducting clinical research and presenting their findings at professional meetings and by publication. Several current and past residents have conducted research funded by the American Cancer Society, Wright State University, The Ohio State University and the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). Our faculty and residents have published in many prestigious journals such as The American Family Physician, Journal of the American Medical Association, The Consultant, Family Practice Recertification and Family Practice Management. They have also presented at the AAFP Scientific Assembly, Society for Teachers of Family Medicine and ACGME conferences, AFMRD Program Director Workshop, Pediatric Academic Societies Annual Meeting, Society for Neuroscience and others.

Mount Carmel is one of four family medicine programs affiliated with The Ohio State University College of Medicine (OSU) and the Boonshoft School of Medicine at Wright State University (WSU). Both our faculty and residents are clinical instructors at both institutions and provide lectures on various topics and workshops for courses such as Introduction to Physical Examination and Physician-Patient Relationship to all levels of medical students. Medical students from several schools rotate through our program for their third and fourth year clinical rotations. Faculty and residents provide training for students from OSU, WSU, Ohio University, NEOUCOM, LECOM and many other medical schools in Ohio and out of state. Joint Family Medicine Residency Program conferences are held with the other three Family Medicine Programs on a quarterly basis on topics such as sports medicine, practice management, and community medicine.

Emphasis on Community Outreach

Mount Carmel has a strong history of commitment to providing care to the medically underserved through the Outreach Program and our residents support that tradition. The Medical Director of the Outreach Program is John O'Handley, MD who is a past program director for the residency. All of our residents serve on the Mount Carmel Outreach Van. The van is a state-of-the-art mobile outpatient unit that travels to homeless shelters, neighborhood centers and communities in need. The van enables us to provide medical assessments, procedures and treatment, diagnostic tests, immunizations, patient education, medications and health referrals. The Outreach Program and the residency also support Mount Carmel's "Door To Door Program", a neighborhood health initiative that goes to individual homes to seek out infants and children in need of immunizations or access to a Family Physician. Both volunteer activities and elective rotations with the Outreach Program are encouraged.

Practice Management "Real World" Training

The majority of our full time faculty and all of our volunteer community preceptors bring "real world" experience in the field of medical business management to the program. Our Practice Management curriculum is a rigorous two year comprehensive training program consisting of lectures, individual and group projects and hands-on activities. The curriculum is under the direction of our Program Director, Chad Braun, MD. Additional faculty, all of whom have at least 10 years of business experience, are involved with the program. The curriculum deals with a myriad of topics including selection of a practice model, personnel issues, anticipated income and practice expense issues, billing and collecting, evaluating and selecting a malpractice insurance contractor, and negotiating a practice contract. Mount Carmel also has a physician placement service that will assist graduating residents in finding practice opportunities.