Providence Portland: Advanced Focus in Behavioral Medicine

Responsible Faculty:  Scott Marsal, M.D.

Providence Portland Medical Center has a strong track record in producing graduates prepared to succeed as hospitalists.  Indeed, numerous graduates are now Hospitalist leaders at a number of institutions across the region.

To enhance the training of future hospitalists we have developed the Advanced Focus in Hospital Medicine at Providence Portland Medical Center.  The Advanced Focus permits residents planning a hospitalist career to tailor their educational experience in the second and third years to prepare to become superb clinical hospitalists and future leaders in this exciting field. 

Advanced Focus Requirements
Residents completing the Advanced Focus curriculum will receive a certificate documenting their achievement during the PGY2 and PGY3 years.  Satisfactory performance in all of specific requirements is necessary for successful completion of the Advanced Focus. 

• Patient Care - Hospitalist Clinical Rotations
  The Advanced Focus resident must complete rotations in the second and third year with the very robust Providence Inpatient Internal Medicine Hospitalist Group at PPMC.  This involves 1:1 inpatient rounding, new inpatient consultation experiences, as well as triage responsibilities with experienced hospitalists.  Participants effectively use our state of the art inpatient information technology systems and clinical decision support tools during the rotations.  Additional experience is gained with coordinating hospital discharge transitions in one of the nations most integrated health systems.
  
• Unique Hospital Medicine Didactic Curriculum
  The Advanced Focus resident will gain additional patient focused knowledge during the hospitalist clinical rotations and will attend monthly hospital medicine didactics throughout their second and third years. Special emphasis is placed on the Society of Hospital Medicine Core Competencies.  Unique sessions focused on performance improvement are also required. 
  
• Performance Improvement Project
  Longitudinally, during the second and third years, housestaff completing the Advanced Focus will participate in a performance improvement project.  These may include development of new order set content for the computerized physician order entry system, or quality improvement projects pertaining to specific inpatient clinical areas such as venous thromboembolic disease or glycemic control.  This component of the Advanced Focus gives the graduate firsthand experience in performance improvement strategies and prepares them for future leadership in hospital quality improvement. Each project is designed by residents and implemented in conjunction with a core faculty member.  In addition, the resident will formally report and submit their performance improvement work for publication/presentation to appropriate regional/national venues.
  

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