About the Residency Program

The Internal Medicine Residency Program at CPMC features a high-level of patient care responsibility in an academic, university-affiliated hospital environment. We are one of the major academic affiliate Internal Medicine training sites for Dartmouth Medical School with strong academic ties with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine. Our program graduates are well-equipped for careers in primary care, hospital-based practice or further training in subspecialty medicine. CPMC is one of the largest quaternary referral centers with a large catchment area of Northern California, the Central Coast and surrounding regions.

The doctors, hospitals and residents of CPMC provide a consistent level of exceptional and personalized care to patients. Our hospital earned recognition as among the top hospitals in California. We are high-performing in cancer, gastroenterology, nephrology, orthopedics, congestive heart failure, cardiology, and chronic pulmonary diseases. We are also committed to diversity and inclusivity and were named a leader in LGBT Healthcare Equality. We have also been awarded the AGC CoCare: HELP™ Center of Excellence designation for expert implementation and proven success of our Hospital Elder Life Program (HELP) program. CPMC received this elite Center of Excellence status based on demonstrating the highest level of best practices and is one of only five organizations in the world to receive this level of geriatric care recognition.

Medicine Ward 

We have Medicine teams comprised of one attending, one senior resident, two interns, and up to 2 medical students. The patient cap for each Medicine team is 16 patients (8 patients per intern). Rounds are a combination of team workroom and bedside rounds at the senior residents and attending's discretion.

We have a drip admission system where the medicine teams alternate admissions daily.

We do not schedule any 24-hour call shifts at CPMC.

Cardiology 

We have two Cardiology teams each comprised of one attending, one senior resident, one intern, and up to 2 medical students. A Cardiology fellow is always present and helps run rounds and admit patients. The patient cap for each Cardiology team includes 7 patients on telemetry floors and up to 3 patients in our cardiac ICU. Senior residents between the two Cardiology teams co-manage cardiac ICU patients and rounds are streamlined to do so. Our cardiologists provide small-group didactic teaching Tuesday-Friday from 8:00-8:30am. Rotating topics include Advanced Heart Failure, Electrophysiology, and general inpatient Cardiology. 

ICU 

We have one ICU team comprised of two senior residents, one intern and a medical student. A Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine Fellow is present half the year to help facilitate rounds and assist residents with procedures. The patient cap for the ICU team is 12. Our intensivists provide didactic teaching on weekdays from 11:00 – 11:30 am and topics include high-yield foundations of critical care medicine and frequently include mock codes.

We do not schedule any 24-hour call shifts at CPMC.

Night Rotations 

There are 3 main night rotations:

• The Crosscover intern cares for patients on the teaching services overnight. A senior resident is on service to assist Crosscover interns at the beginning of the year.
• The Night Float Admitting team is comprised of one in-house admitting attending, one senior resident, and one intern. They take admissions for the medicine, cardiology, and oncology services overnight. Interns are capped at a maximum of 5 admissions.
• The Night ICU team is comprised of one in-house ICU attending, one ICU senior resident, one ICU intern resident. This team is responsible for admitting patients in both the cardiac and medical ICU. They also provide overnight coverage for patients in these units. There is always an in-house ICU attending available overnight.

Interns and residents always have two nights off per week while on night rotations.

Ambulatory Primary Care Curriculum  

We offer an outpatient curriculum where categorical residents follow their own patient panel from day 1 of internship. Our clinic is located in the heart of the Pacific Heights neighborhood in San Francisco. It serves a diverse patient population covered through Medicare, Medi-Cal, private insurers, and North East Medical Services (NEMS) (a local non-profit insurance providing insurance to underserved populations of the Bay Area).

The Ambulatory Primary Care rotation provides a good balance between clinical medicine and didactics. Here is an example of a resident's schedule:

Didactics on Ambulatory Primary Care:

• Tuesday Core Curriculum: 2 hour didactic on a core Ambulatory topic
• Wednesday Ambulatory Morning report: Resident-led presentations coupled with Chief-led discussions related to outpatient clinical cases
• Thursday Communication: A time to reflect and debrief difficult situations in small groups with residents and attendings
• Friday Evidence-Based Medicine: This is an attending-led weekly small group session where we learn how to analyze journal articles, review biostatistics, and critique study design."
• We also have a "Pre-Clinic Talk" daily from 1:00 – 1:30 pm on core ambulatory topics based on the Yale Outpatient Curriculum