Residency and Departmental Overview
(for contact information and NRMP Match numbers, scroll to the bottom of the page)
Beth Israel Medical Center's residency program in Internal Medicine has full accreditation by the ACGME and consists of around 120 house staff across all three years of training, including approximately 15 trainees completing a preliminary year. The program provides outstanding clinical training, research opportunities and preparation for a career in either academic or clinical medicine. These endeavors are carried out in a humane, respectful and supportive environment where the delivery of compassionate, high-quality care is the guiding principle.
The Department of Medicine has 115 full time and 26 part time faculty at the main hospital alone (the Petrie Division), many of whom have joint appointments in more than one division, providing for significant interaction within the department and throughout the institution.
The Department's total full time, part time and voluntary staff at all sites numbers more than 740 physicians, representing all disciplines of Internal Medicine. All faculty members are board certified or eligible, hold faculty appointments at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and are involved in training residents on inpatient services and in the subspecialty medicine teaching programs. Almost 20% of the full-time faculty participates in the ambulatory general medicine teaching program.
Most of the patients on the 300-bed medical service are admitted through the Emergency Department, which treats more than 60,000 patients annually. The patient mix is well balanced and represents the cultural and socioeconomic diversity of Beth Israel's metropolitan location. Residents are responsible for and play a major role in the care of all of these patients, including continuity of care between in-patient and ambulatory settings.
Functioning as a teacher is a major part of the house staff experience at Beth Israel. Residents teach in the clerkship program for second-, third- and fourth-year students. Second-year students learn the rudiments of physical diagnosis, third-year students function as clinical clerks, and fourth-year students rotate on the medicine service as subinterns, integrated completely with the house staff. Most importantly, residents teach each other in a series of increasingly responsible roles. The Albert Einstein students view us as a highly desirable site for training and the Department of Medicine consistently earns outstanding ratings from the students.
The Beth Israel Health Care System
The Beth Israel Health Care System has been serving the New York community for over a century, providing a full range of primary, secondary- and tertiary-level services. Beth Israel Medical Center, one of the largest providers of inpatient care in the United States, is University Hospital and Manhattan Campus for the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and has one of the largest postgraduate teaching programs in New York City.
In Manhattan, Beth Israel Medical Center’s Milton and Carroll Petrie Division at First Avenue and 16th Street is a 680 bed, acute care teaching hospital, which is the flagship site for training in internal medicine. In Brooklyn, Beth Israel’s Kings Highway Division is a 212-bed facility located at 3201 Kings Highway in the Midwood community. House staff do not rotate at the Kings Highway Division.
The majority of outpatient care is delivered at the Phillips Ambulatory Care Center in Union Square, which includes many medical and surgical subspecialty centers, a comprehensive cancer center, and an ambulatory surgery center. Other hospital affiliated sites within the greater New York City area include: "D*O*C*S, a primary and specialty care practice in Manhattan with two locations; the Japanese Medical Practice and a satellite Japanese Medical Practice in Westchester; the Phillips Beth Israel School of Nursing; and The Robert Mapplethorpe Residential Treatment Facility, a 28-bed facility on the Petrie campus.
Beth Israel maintains a research affiliation with The Rockefeller University and has clinical affiliations with The New York Eye & Ear Infirmary and the Opportunity Development Association in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Beth Israel is a charter member of the UJA Federation of Jewish Philanthropies and the United Hospital Fund and is a participating agency in the Greater New York Fund/United Way.
The Beth Israel Health Care System serves the people of the New York metropolitan area in a partnership with St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center in Manhattan and Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn. The prominent institutions are the principal components of their parent corporation, created in January 1997 as Continuum Health Partners, Inc. The partnership provides the highest quality and efficient medical services throughout the east and west sides of Manhattan, as well as in other New York City boroughs and Westchester and Rockland Counties. It comprises over 3,200 beds and has an operating budget of $1.8 billion. Together, the system represents more than 3,800 physicians and dentists and a workforce of more than 17,000 employees.
Internal Medicine Residency Program Leadership
Henry C. Bodenheimer, MD
Chairman, Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Medical Center
Professor of Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Dr. Bodenheimer came to Beth Israel in 2002 from Mount Sinai Hospital; where he was the Deputy Director, Medical Services of the Recanati/Miller Transplantation Institute. Recognized for his work in primary biliary cirrhosis and liver transplantion, he has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed manuscripts, served on NIH study sections, was associate editor of Hepatology and is a medical board member of the New York Organ Donor Network.
Daniel I. Steinberg, MD, FHM
Vice Chair for Education, Department of Medicine
Program Director, Internal Medicine Residency Training Program
Attending Physician and Hospitalist, Department of Medicine
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Dr. Steinberg trained here at Beth Israel and served as a Chief Medical Resident, finishing his training in 2002. He returned to Beth Israel in 2006 after spending four years at the University of Pennsylvania as an Academic Hospitalist, where he ran the resident journal club and was a full-time ward attending. He also worked in Africa in 2006, providing medical care in urban and remote areas of Botswana. Dr. Steinberg publishes regularly on evidence-based medicine and clinical application of biostatistics and is the Editor of the textbook Evidence-Based Medical Consultation (Saunders, 2007). He serves on the Education Committee of the Society of Hospital Medicine and on the Ethics, Humanism and Professionalism Committee of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He speaks reguarly on communication skills and professionalism. In 2009, Dr Steinberg was among the first 500 of the nation's approximately 20,000 hospitalists elected to Fellowship status in the Society of Hospital Medicine. Dr Steinberg has been selected by the Board of Directors of the Society of Hospital Medicine to deliver the plenary lecture, "Update in Hospital Medicine", at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the Society of Hospital Medicine.
Adrienne M. Fleckman, MD
Associate Program Director, Internal Medicine Residency Training Program
Professor of Clinical Medicine and Assistant Dean, Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Dr. Fleckman was formerly Chief of Service at Kings County Hospital and trained in endocrinology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Fleckman is dedicated to the continued development of all aspects of the training program, and to supporting house officers in the achievement of personal, educational, research and career goals.
Jose Cortes, MD
Associate Program Director, Internal Medicine Residency Training Program
Attending Physician, Division of Infectious Diseases
Dr. Cortes joined Beth Israel in 2008. An experienced educator with a professional interest in communication skills and in teaching trainees how to be better teachers themselves, Dr Cortes has brought innovation with him from Cabrini Medical Center, where he was Program Director for many years. He runs frequent, highly praised workshops for the house staff on teaching skills, communcation skills and other topics. He is also an active member of the Division of Infectious Disease.
Alfred Burger, MD
Dr. Burger joined Beth Israel in 2009. Dr Burger completed his medical residency at The Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, where he also served as Chief Medical Resident. Dr Burger has served as an associate program director in other institutions, and we are very proud to have him as the newest addition to our team. Dr. Burger has collaborated extensively with house staff, having produced many posters and abstracts that were presented by trainees under his charge at national meetings. Dr. Burger is a member of the Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM), the leading academic primary care society in the US. Dr. Burger has numerous leadership and committee roles at SGIM, and sits on their 2010 Annual Meeting Planning Committee.
Internal Medicine Training Programs at Beth Israel Medical Center
The Categorical Program
The primary goal of Beth Israel's Categorical residency training program in Medicine is to provide the trainee with advanced medical knowledge, progressive experience in clinical decision-making and the opportunity to practice medicine in an environment of clinical excellence. Training occurs in an atmosphere of openness, where residents are encouraged to raise questions and contribute ideas.
Beth Israel offers a cooperative, supportive environment. The nursing staff is among the finest anywhere and all members of the health care team work closely together. This environment supports the goal that resident duties be limited whenever possible to activities that only a physician can perform. The hospital provides excellent ancillary services, including transport staff, clerks, phlebotomists and IV teams to facilitate patient care.
The Preliminary Year in Medicine at Beth Israel
Beth Israel offers an outstanding Preliminary year for house staff heading towards careers in other specialties. The clinical and educational activities and the work schedule for Preliminary house staff are the same as for Categorical house staff. The one exception to this is that Preliminary house staff do not attend weekly or block outpatient continuity clinic.
“Learn and Earn” Work Study Program
In addition to our traditional residency training program in internal medicine, Beth Israel Medical Center offers a parallel approach to internal medicine training. This approach is a combination work-study program, which we call our Learn and Earn program.
Training begins with the standard medicine categorical internship. Following the internship, the two years of a medical residency are distributed over three years, eight months each year. The participant spends four months of each year (after the internship) working as a physician in a Beth Israel Medical Center-affiliated inpatient or outpatient facility.
A New York State license is required for this role. Therefore, applicants must be eligible for licensure in New York State after their internship. During training months, the resident is paid at the house officer rate corresponding to his or her total months of training. During working months, the resident is paid at the augmented rate of a full-time house physician, resulting in over (approximately) $145,000 in incremental income over that provided by the residency. The resident continuously receives house officer benefits throughout the four years, including housing and disability, as well as health and malpractice insurance. The Learn and Earn program is not a "needs based" program, and the extra salary earned may be used however a house officer wishes to use them.
This approach accomplishes several goals for Beth Israel, such as increasing the number of high-quality physicians providing primary care in non-training settings and providing new avenues for recruiting residents. However, the Learn and Earn program also offers advantages to residents. Their quality of life is greatly improved and residents may emerge debt-free from training. The resident matriculating in the Learn and Earn program will be joining a well-established, accredited residency-training program in Internal Medicine. Timing and financial rewards are the only real differences in training between this program and Beth Israel's traditional training program in Internal Medicine.
The Importance of House Staff Input
Resident feedback about all aspects of the program is regularly sought and highly valued.
Whenever new initiatives are started or new policies are considered, feedback from house staff is obtained and is incorporated.
For example, in the Spring of 2009, a new resident report format was started on Thursday mornings. After a run in period, house staff feedback was obtained via an anonymous online survey. Revisions to the format were made, and the current format enjoys very high approval by the house staff for its educational value. You can view the results of anonymous house staff polling on our current Thurday morning resident report by clicking here.
Another great example of how house staff feedback is crucial in providing the best training atmosphere is the operational side of this website (accessed only by password from the "house staff" tab at the top of the page). This website serves as an information dissemination and reference platform for house staff on a day to day basis. When designing the site, we simply asked house staff what information they wanted on-demand access to, and followed their great ideas.
Mentoring
Upon entry into the Training Program, each house officer is paired up with both a Chief Resident and with a Program Director, who serve as "buddies" for that house officer.
House officers meet twice per year with their Program Director buddy to review performance, discuss career plans or fellowship applications, and any other pertinent issues. However, the Program Directors pride themselves on being available to any resident for any issue whenever they should arise, and their doors are always open to house staff and students.
Chief Residents provide one-on-one evaluation, counseling and advice to their house officer buddies. Remediation, if necessary, is carried out in a structured but comfortable way with the goal of making the trainee feel supported.
House staff interested in research can be paired up with a research mentor in the subspecialty they are interested in. All of our divisional faculty, including and especially the division chiefs themselves, are extremely accessible to house staff.
Chief Medical Residents
The Chief Medical Residents are a major force on the medical service. In addition to accomplishing the miracles of scheduling and conferences, they are an invaluable resource for teaching, conducting rounds, disseminating medical literature and overseeing all educational aspects of the program. Through the initiatives of the chief medical residents, new programs are proposed and accomplished.
CLICK HERE TO MEET THE CHIEFS!
Regularly Scheduled Educational Activities
Patient Rounds: Residents start the day by leading bedside teaching and work rounds with the team. Team members review the progress of each patient, incorporating patient management with opportunities for informal medical discussion.
Attending Rounds: Medical teams present and discuss patients during rounds with their teaching attendings. Case management is discussed within the context of pathophysiology and patient care, incorporating new developments.
Chairman’s Rounds: The Chairman rounds with one of the ward teams each week. House staff have the opportunity to present and discuss patients and philosophy with their Chief of Medicine.
Residents’ Morning Report: In a dynamic, interactive forum, house staff meet with the chief medical residents, Dr. Fleckman, Dr. Cortes, Dr. Steinberg and select faculty to discuss interesting and instructive cases. Residents present patients, concentrating on the most challenging aspects, and chief medical residents incorporate the latest medical literature.
Resident Case Presentation and Literature Review: Residents are mentored by a senior faculty member to present and discuss one case in depth, with emphasis on differential diagnosis, clinical problem solving and expert subspecialty discussion. The format of these conferences encourages their presentation at national conferences in abstract form.
Primary Care Conference: One conference per week for all residents is dedicated to the primary care curriculum. Outside speakers from many disciplines discuss topics that are important for the delivery of care to patients in the ambulatory setting in addition to presentations by the general medical and subspecialty medicine faculty. Residents attend additional primary care conferences at the general medical clinic during their ambulatory block rotations.
Noon Conference: Following the core curriculum lecture series on managing acute medical problems given each July and August, daily noon conferences are the forum for review of major topics in the curriculum, recent advancements, discussions of ethics, morbidity and mortality, and the weekly ambulatory medicine series.
Interns' Core Curriculum: Using the Socratic method, the chief medical residents meet with the interns twice-weekly to discuss physiology, pathophysiology and treatment in a relaxed environment. Major areas of internal medicine are covered in this year-long curriculum.
Residents' Research Grand Rounds: Conferences are presented by the medical residents to the residents and senior faculty, constituting a research seminar by residents performing clinical or bench research or a comprehensive scholarly review including basic science background and future directions of a select research topic in clinical medicine that focuses on a major article.
Residents' Board Review: Residents meet weekly throughout the year with the chief medical residents and/or faculty for an in-depth review of internal medicine topics with the goal of guiding study and maximizing preparation for the American Board of Internal Medicine certification examination. Our Board passage rate is superb.
Evidence Based Medicine Journal Club: During the PGY-2 year, residents select, present and analyze controversial and important journal articles from the recent literature in an informal presentation to their house staff colleagues. Direct one-on-one mentoring and preparation is given to each resident by a Chief Medical Resident. Although a Chief and a Program Director are always present, residents are encouraged to be presenter-teachers and are taught evidence-based concepts with an eye to giving them the ability to pass this knowledge on to others, in addition to using it in their own practice.
To view an example of one of our resident's EBM presentations, click here!
Clinicopathologic Conference (CPC): Each month, residents present current cases of extraordinary interest, with outstanding CPC-style discussion by attendings from medicine, pathology and radiology.
Grand Rounds: Each week, Beth Israel faculty and invited speakers discuss or lecture on topics of major interest, cases from the Beth Israel service or current advances in the field.
Basic and Clinical Research Lecture Series: In the summer full time faculty present basic science background and principles of informed consent, rights of research subjects and fundamentals of clinical research. The divisions of the Department of Medicine present active areas of investigation in each of their fields and explain how house staff can get involved in a wide variety of research projects. This series is reinforced throughout the year with talks by invited speakers and with activities designed by the resident-faculty Research Committee including "Research Fairs" and poster presentations.
Subspecialty Conferences: In addition to the above conferences specifically given for the residents, each division holds weekly subspecialty conferences, frequently including prestigious outside speakers.
Computerized Simulation Training: Using a computerized patient simulator, house staff receive instruction in emergency airway management as well as code leader, code team and rapid response team training.
Research
Mentoring by senior researchers, opportunities for collaboration with basic science and clinical faculty, access to top facilities, and dedicated statistical support are the key elements needed to foster the development of young investigators and authors. All of these resources are available for house staff at Beth Israel Medical Center.
We provide excellent opportunities to perform both basic research (most often pursued by those residents interested in academic subspecialty training) and clinical research for residents interested in primary care outcomes research or clinical trials.
The vast majority of residents conduct productive research projects, ranging from case reports or retrospective reviews to prospective clinical and laboratory studies. Departmental faculty members are available to provide consultation and collaboration in residents' research projects.
Many house staff and faculty are actively engaged in systems research, which examine methods of delivery of care, cost analysis and hospital operations. Members of our hospitalist group and other faculty are also working with house staff on quality improvement research projects.
Elective rotations can be grouped to allow significant blocks of research time. There are approximately 100 research projects under way in the department.
Residents are co-authors on more than 40 publications and abstracts each year. Various competitive grants sponsored by the Medical Center are available to support resident research. The department also provides funding and educational leave time for residents to present their research at national meetings.
View house staff peer reviewed publications, chapters and other submitted works for 2006-2008
View house staff posters, abstracts and presentations for 2006-2008
Divisions of the Department of Medicine
Beth Israel Medical Center supports all major subspecialty Divisions, and has active fellowship programs in Cardiology (including Cardiology, Electrophysiology, Interventional and Preventive Cardiology fellowships), Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, Nephrology, Digestive Diseases/Gastroenterology, Infectious Disease, Hematology/Oncology and Endocrinology.
Click here for more information on the Divisons and the residency experience
Fellowship and Beyond Residency
Many of our trainees go on to subspeciality fellowship training or careers in primary care or private practice. In keeping with national trends, an increasing number of graduates are choosing either clinical or academic careers in hospital medicine.
We are immensely proud of our graduates and what they go on to do.
Click here to see where our recent graduates have gone for fellowships and to start their careers
Resident Schedule and Resident Life
Click here to meet our current house staff!
Work Schedule
House staff are on call until 9:00 pm every fourth day. Night float teams relieve the on-call day teams of floor coverage responsibilities at 8:00 pm and begin to receive admissions at 9:00 pm.
Interns and residents spend one month each year (in two-week blocks) working on the night float medical team. Each morning, members of the night float team join their respective medical teams to present patients they have admitted the previous night and to give a detailed sign-out to ensure smooth continuity of care. Night float periods are usually scheduled before or after vacation.
The Beth Israel Residency Program in Internal Medicine has seen a major re-commitment to primary care training. All categorical residents now have a minimum of four ambulatory continuity "blocks" in the training program (in addition to weekly continuity clinic). During their inpatient rotations, residents work closely with hospitalists and other attending physicians to learn how to communicate and coordinate discharge planning and continuity with the primary care physician following a patient’s hospitalization.
The year is divided into 13 four-week blocks with elective time each year. Elective rotations can be used to pursue research projects or to gain extra clinical experience in an area of the house officer's interest.
Click here to see a sample house officer schedule
Life as a Resident at Beth Israel and in New York City
The warmth and collegial atmosphere at Beth Israel is evidenced by the fact that many of our trainees stay on as faculty and fellows. In addition, many graduates return to Beth Israel after obtaining speciality training or other work experience elsewhere.
New York City offers house staff innumerable activities in their time off. Restaurants and shops abound within walking distance in our immediate neighborhoods of Gramercy Park, Union Square, and the East Village.
Union Square, a few blocks from the hospital, has a Whole Foods store a Trader Joe's, and an enormous multi-level Barnes and Noble Bookstore. Nothing like writing up a case report or research project on your laptop overlooking Union Square! In addition, New York City's flagship Greenmarket, a collection of vendors selling fresh produce and other foods from local and upstate farms, is found in the center of Union Square.
With a little research (check out Time Out New York, or City Search) even a couple of hours off can become a wonderful dinner at a Tapas bar, a trip to a wine bar, or a Broadway show. A short subway ride can result in a stomach full of fantastic, truly authentic Indian or Pakistani food in Jackson Heights, Queens, or a complete cultural immersion experience in the peaceful and fascinating Russian neighborhood of Brighton Beach in Brooklyn.
Like the outdoors? Well, this isn't Colorado of course, but there are plenty of options. A peaceful or active day in Central Park cures many woes and people have been known to actually forget they are in New York City after a few hours... (no randomized trials for this but good anecdotal evidence). Ninety minutes north of the city is the Mohonk Preserve, home to spectacular hiking. Some of the best rock climbing in the country, and an exceptionally cool town, can be found in and around New Paltz, NY, also just 90 minutes north of Manhattan. For those of you who crave the beach, Jones Beach and Robert Moses State Park are all just a short ways from the city and make nice day trips.
New York City--Manhattan in particular--is an incredibly safe place. The usual caveats apply and good judgement must always be exercised, but walking or taking the subway at night is not something most New Yorkers in our area of Manhattan are overly concerned about.
Housing, Salary, Benefits and Contractual Information
Beth Israel Medical Center guarantees housing to all of its residency trainees. Housing is located either across the street or within just a few blocks of the main hospital. Salary and benefits are competitive with other area programs.
For more information on these topics please visit the Beth Israel Graduate Medical Eduation website at: www.bethisraelgme.org (applicants who have been invited for interview will recieve a password to this site in their invitation e-mail, and it is essential that you visit and review the information on this site.)
Other Innovative Programs
Sabbath Program
The Department of Medicine at Beth Israel Medical Center provides a special program designed to accommodate Sabbath observant Jewish residents. This program is fully integrated into the regular categorical program. These residents are exempt from hospital duties on the Jewish Sabbath (Friday evening to Saturday evening) as well as certain Jewish Holidays. However, the total number of hours worked is equivalent among all medicine residents. This schedule allows the observant Jewish resident to acquire premium medical training while not violating the Sabbath.
Japanese Medical Residents
As part of Beth Israel's continuing efforts to address cross-cultural issues and broaden the resident's experience, the Medical Center offers residency training opportunities to medical students who are bilingual in Japanese and English. In 1990, Beth Israel established the Japanese Medical Practice to respond to the medical needs of New York's Japanese population and the more than half-million travelers who visit New York City each year. The practice has offices in Manhattan and Westchester County. Graduating residents will have the opportunity to stay on as practicing physicians to serve this community. The program is supported by a grant by Tokio Marine and Fire Insurance Company, Ltd., one of the world's largest insurance companies.
General Information
Library Access and Informatics
In addition to the Medical Center library, a house staff library provides full Internet access to all of the electronic holdings of both the Beth Israel and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine libraries. The department library and computer center are located in Baird Hall and are accessible 24 hours a day to residents and medical students. House staff have access from all computers in the hospital to the on-line textbook of medicine "Up To Date", and to the "Res-Train" directory with schedules, manuals, board review information, and other materials pertinent to the training program.
The MKSAP series is available in the Chief Medical Residents’ office.
Remote access to "Up To Date" is also available to all house staff, so that this resource may be used at home.
An electronic order entry system is utilized by nurses and physicians for order entry, medication charting, vital signs and results retrieval on all inpatient services. Residents have access to radiological patient studies over the intranet and are trained in PowerPoint presentations.
Match Numbers:
Categorical – 1470740C0
Learn and Earn – 1470140C1
3YR Sabbath – 1470140C2
Preliminary – 1470140P0
For More Information
Applications for positions in our residency program will be processed through ERAS (Electronic Residency Application Service). Inquiries concerning the philosophy, content or form of the program should be addressed to:
Cynthia Dominguez
Manager, Internal Medicine Residency Training Program
Department of Medicine
Beth Israel Medical Center
First Avenue at 16th Street
20th Floor, Baird Hall
New York, NY 10003
(212) 420-3363
E-mail: intmed@chpnet.org
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