Rotations

General Internal Medical Floor

Rotations are 2-4 weeks in duration. During the inpatient General Medical Floor service, residents work in 8 teams composed of 1 senior resident and 1 intern with a variable number of medical students. An attending physician is assigned to each inpatient service, serving as a mentor and conducting daily patient rounds and formal teaching rounds.

Inpatient teams can admit every day, but only take “service” admissions every fourth day. We operate using the night float system, so overnight patients are admitted by the night float team.

As a PGY1, responsibilities include accepting primary decision making for patient management in collaboration with the senior resident and attending physician. The intern is expected to write all orders, document care in the chart, perform daily work rounds and attend all conferences.

As a PGY2, the main responsibility is supervising the PGY1 residents with the management of patients. Senior residents are expected to ensure quality of care for each patient, take leadership roles during work rounds, and participate in all conferences. They also play a major role in the education of students, present patient case reports, and conduct Journal Club sessions and Morbidity and Mortality conferences during this year.

As a PGY3, the main responsibility is to assure appropriate functioning of the entire team, with an accent on scholarship. The senior residents are expected to ensure quality of care for each patient, to lead work rounds, participate in all conferences, and supervise the education of students. During this year, you will be presenting a Senior Research Project as well

Medical Intensive and Coronary Care Unit

The medical intensive and coronary care unit (MICCU) rotation involves exposure to critical care patients under direct supervision of the MICCU medical director and heart failure specialist. You also will interact with many of the subspecialists. The MICCU team consists of 4 senior residents and 3 interns who cover approximately 10-14 beds. There are opportunities to acquire and become certified in the ABIM required procedures such as central line placement, arterial lines, lumbar punctures, intubations, thoracentesis and paracentesis. In addition, you will gain experience in managing mechanically ventilated patients.

The MICCU rotation also involves direct exposure to inpatients with a diverse spectrum of cardiovascular diseases. Our heart failure faculty attending will directly supervise the team during the month along with a cardiology fellow. You will become familiar with managing transvenous pacemakers, pulmonary artery catheters, and advanced circulatory support interventions like intra-aortic balloon pumps, Impella, and ECMO.

Electives

During elective rotations, residents learn by working directly with board-certified physicians and fellows in the subspecialty areas of medicine.

In the Cardiology rotation, you will see inpatient consultations and will have broad exposure to cardiology-related tests (i.e. ECG, echocardiograms, stress tests, coronary angiograms, electrophysiology procedures, etc.).  You will be assigned to a very active inpatient consultation service, working with cardiology fellows and attendings. You will be exposed to a diversity of cases and procedures, which will be a perfect complement of your experience in the MICCU. AIMMC offers state-of-the-art heart care including Transcatheter Aortic Valve replacement (TAVR), Mitral Valve clipping (Mitraclip), and Patent Foramen Ovale (PFO) closure procedures and you will likely follow these patients before and after intervention.

The Pulmonary Medicine rotation is another active, inpatient consultation service. Under the supervision of one of our pulmonologists, you will be doing daily rounds on patients with underlying pulmonary problems. Daily radiology rounds improve your familiarity with interpretation of different imaging techniques.

During the Infectious Diseases rotation, you will be exposed to a wide spectrum of patients with underlying infectious problems, learning how to diagnose and manage these conditions. You also will be exposed to a variety of HIV/AIDS patients, and will become familiar and comfortable with their complex and ever-changing medical management.

During the Gastroenterology rotation, you will have the opportunity to observe procedures in the Gl lab, observe colorectal surgical procedures in our Center for Advanced Care and be an active participant in gastroenterology consultations on patients with a wide variety of disease processes.

The Geriatrics rotation is under the supervision of the Chief of Geriatrics. You will join him during inpatient rounds, nursing home and geriatrics clinic rounds review modules and presentations, complete assigned readings, and gain experience through one-on-one preceptorship in the clinical setting.

During Nephrology rotation, you will have the opportunity to work under the supervision of the Chief of Nephrology, and join him in the inpatient consultation service and his outpatient practices. As part of your rotation, you will have the opportunity to do once a week rounds at a dialysis center.

Illinois Masonic has its own cancer center, located within the Center for Advanced Care, with a very active outpatient and inpatient program. The Hematology-Oncology inpatient service enhances your experience in the hospital with current diagnostic and therapeutic approaches and open questions for future research.

During the Neurology rotation, another inpatient-based consultation service, you will work with neurologists on staff at Illinois Masonic. It is an active consultation service, with exposure to EMG and EEG interpretation, as well as sleep studies.

You will be required to do an Emergency Medicine rotation once during your residency. During this month, you work alongside the ER residents and attending physicians performing acute care visits, performing minor procedures, and learning the decision-making process for appropriate disposition and follow-up.

The Hospital Administration rotation provides exposure to the process of hospital accreditation, quality improvement, hospital committees and patient safety initiatives. You also improve patient care processes by developing an independent quality improvement project. All residents are expected to complete the IHI Quality Improvement curriculum by graduation.

Residents may also choose other elective rotations such as Endocrinology, Rheumatology, Pathology, Psychiatry, Radiology, Dermatology, Ophthalmology, Otolaryngology, and Anesthesia. There are also opportunities to arrange for “away” rotation at one of our sister sites (Lutheran General Hospital or Advocate Christ Medical Center) for exposure to even more pathology and advanced therapies such as ventricular assist devices (VADs), heart transplants, pulmonary hypertension, or bone marrow transplants.