Program rotations offered through the McKay-Dee Family Practice Residency provide residents with unique learning opportunities at the clinic and the award-winning McKay-Dee Hospital campus.

  • Full-spectrum medicine in outpatient settings
  • Patient care teams
  • Integrated health system
  • State-of-the-art technologies
  • Electronic medical record system

Residency Rotations

First Year Residents

  • Inpatient Family Medicine (Adults, Pediatrics and Obstetrics) - 4 months
  • Inpatient Medicine (Adults only) - 3 months
  • Community Medicine - 1 month
  • Gynecology - 1 month
  • Emergency Medicine - 1 month
  • Obstetrics - 1 month
  • Ambulatory Family Medicine (Including Ambulatory Pediatrics) - 1 month

Second Year Residents

  • Inpatient Medicine - 4 months
  • Inpatient Family Medicine - 2 months
  • Sports Medicine - 1 month
  • Critical Care - 1 month
  • Emergency Medicine - 1 month
  • Rural Medicine - 1 month
  • Psychiatry - 1 month
  • Elective - 1 month

Third Year Residents

  • Inpatient Family Medicine - 2 months
  • Surgery - 1 month
  • Orthopedics - 1 month
  • Sub-Specialty Selective - 5 months
  • Elective - 3 months

Note: This scheduling outline is representational of what residents might expect during their three-year program.

Rotation Details

Family Medicine Inpatient Service

Rotations = 8 months (total). This service exposes residents to every aspect of family medicine including adults, pediatrics, obstetrics (including labor, delivery and postpartum) and newborn care. One of our own faculty members serves as the attending each week. The residents admit patients of Porter Clinic faculty and residents, resident continuity and faculty obstetric patients and pediatric patients with the pediatric hospitalists and physicians in the community. See below for details about the call schedule.

Medicine Inpatient Service

Rotations = 7 months (total). Residents admit patients with the McKay-Dee hospitalists, community-based faculty, and cardiologists caring for patients admitted to McKay-Dee Hospital. The patient mix ranges from general medical problems to acutely ill intensive care and coronary care patients. Residents respond to and help the hospitalists direct all codes. See below for details about the call schedule.

Call Schedule

During months on inpatient services, the four-resident team divides the month up to each take a week (6 nights) of night float, admitting and taking calls from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. During the remainder of the month, they are on-call and take admissions from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. every third day. On other weekday afternoons, they schedule various clinical activities. On non-call weekend days, they have the day off.

Residents not on service cover the Saturday night shift admitting patients and taking calls from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m., then round on patients Sunday morning so those on service can have that time off. This ends up being roughly one night-float shift per month while not on service.

Obstetrics

Rotation = 1 month. During intern year, residents complete a one-month dedicated rotation with the intent of gaining significant exposure to the more procedural aspects of the labor and delivery floor to bolster the skills often not obtained during their medical school training. They work closely with FM faculty, laborists and community obstetricians on triaging patients, interpreting fetal heart tones, participating in deliveries and managing various aspects of the labor process.

Longitudinal = 3 months equivalent on Family Medicine Service. Ongoing training occurs during family medicine service rotations and while caring for obstetric patients who are part of the resident's continuity clinic. The residency serves as primary obstetrical provider for a large community health center serving low-income populations. Through this affiliation, residents follow a panel of women through the entire course of pregnancy and deliver under the supervision of family physicians, obstetricians, and perinatologists.

There is extensive training in the use of ultrasound, intrapartum monitoring, and in the management of delivery. The average resident cares for and delivers approximately 40 continuity patients during his or her three years. In addition, residents participate in an average of 50 to 100 vaginal deliveries (depending on level of interest) with community obstetricians, family medicine and midwife attendings. Residents also have the opportunity to learn Caesarean section skills, and interested residents graduate having performed 40-60 C-sections as primary surgeon.

Pediatrics

Rotation = 2 weeks. Ambulatory Pediatrics. During intern year, residents complete a one month dedicated rotation with the intent of accelerating their skill set in the ambulatory setting. They work closely with FM faculty and affiliated community pediatricians in providing care to a significant number of well and sick child visits. Ongoing acute and well-child care training is gained through the resident's continuity patient panel at the Porter Family Medicine Residency Clinic.

Longitudinal = 3 months equivalent on Family Medicine Service. The on-going training encompasses the full range of pediatric care. Inpatient experience occurs within the hospital pediatric unit while on the Inpatient Family Medicine service, admitting children directly from community pediatrician's offices, as well as through the Emergency Department.

Orthopedics and Sports Medicine

Rotations = 2 months. During these rotations, residents work with orthopedists, primary care sports medicine physicians, physical therapists and various other specialists learning advanced musculoskeletal medicine.

Longitudinal. There are three residency run sports medicine clinics a week, attended by two of our primary care sports medicine faculty, Dr. Scharmann and Dr. Madsen. All residents participate in these clinics throughout their entire residency. Second year residents are assigned to a local high school football team or local hockey team and attend all games to provide coverage on the field and sidelines. A sports medicine bag is provided to each resident.

Opportunities are available to be medical staff to marathons, ultra-marathons, triathlons, national cycling events, Snowbasin and Park City Ski Resort Clinics and several other activities and venues. Residents feel the sports medicine training at McKay-Dee Hospital is one of the best programs in the country, and they enjoy not having to compete with fellows for training.

Surgery

Rotation = 1 month. The surgery rotation provides residents a broad range of training and experience from the handling of major trauma to "lump and bump" office procedures. The resident gains experience in the delivery of pre- and post-operative care, as well as experience in operating room procedures. Competency in minor surgical techniques and outpatient surgery is stressed. The program may be tailored to meet special demands of the resident expecting to practice in a rural area. Graduates currently practicing in rural areas perform procedures such as: hernia repairs, cholecystectomies, upper and lower endoscopies, carpal tunnel release, appendectomies, tonsillectomies, adenoidectomies, and tympanostomy tube placement.

Rural Medicine

Rotation = 2 weeks. Every second-year resident spends two weeks in a rural Utah community learning small town Family Medicine. The resident participates in outpatient, inpatient, obstetrical, and emergency care while on this rotation. Housing is provided. Residents are also encouraged to explore community resources and the differences between rural, suburban, and urban medicine. There is also the opportunities for the resident to complete this rotation w/ affiliated physicians in Alaska, or arrange at a facility of their choice if they prefer.

Psychiatry

Rotation = 1 month. The behavioral health training consists of longitudinal training, as well as a one-month rotation based on a combination of hospital and community experiences. Residents treat a variety of patients with psychiatrists and other mental health professionals. There is ongoing collaboration and consultation on selected cases during each year of the residency. The training can be tailored to fit the needs of the individual resident.

Emergency Medicine

Rotation = 2 months. The emergency medicine rotation is completed at McKay-Dee Hospital, which is a Level II Trauma Center serving Northern Utah and Southern Idaho through the busiest Emergency Department in the state. Residents receive training in the management of a wide range of medical and surgical emergencies, and acquire competency in ACLS, endotracheal intubation, and the initial management of both major and minor trauma victims. This is often the resident's highest-rated experience.

Community Medicine

Rotation = 1 month. During the first year, each resident spends one month visiting and learning about the various community health care resources and completing a community needs assessment.

Geriatrics

Longitudinal. During their second and third year, residents follow a panel of patients at a local nursing home where the medical director provides oversight and some didactic teaching in geriatric care.

Gynecology

Rotation = 1 month. Gynecological training is gained during a one month rotation during the first year and also longitudinally throughout the three years. The formal one-month rotation is spent with community gynecologists, planned parenthood, and local colposcopy and LEEP clinics, including one at our family medicine center.

Critical Care

Rotation = 1 month. A formal one-month rotation is spent in the Intensive Care Unit at McKay-Dee Hospital during the third year. Residents admit patients with the intensivists and follow these patients daily. Formal rounds are held by the multidisciplinary intensive care team, and residents present their patient at these rounds. Daily didactic lectures are given by the intensivists to the residents.

Selectives

Rotations = 5 months. Selectives are required subspecialty rotations (e.g., Urology, GI, ENT, Optho, Neurology, Dermatology) that are available during the second and third years of the program. These allow residents to tailor their training program specifically to their anticipated practice settings, and to their individual needs.

Electives

Rotations = 5.5 months.A wide variety of electives are available at McKay-Dee Hospital or with community physicians in Ogden and surrounding areas. Residents expecting to practice in a rural setting generally spend a number of months obtaining experience in operative obstetrics, procedures, surgical techniques, endoscopy, and emergency medicine.

Quality Improvement

Longitudinal: Intermountain Healthcare has been recognized as a worldwide leader in clinical quality improvement initiatives. Our second-year residents at McKay-Dee Hospital receive training on quality improvement processes, outcomes measurement, statistical process and analysis. They each complete a Quality Improvement project during their second year, which is presented at the annual Ogden Surgical Medical Society Conference each Spring.