Caritas Internal Medicine
For more than 40 years, the Caritas Internal Medicine Clinic, Latin for charity and love, has been meeting the community's growing need for acute illness care, chronic disease management, and a proactive approach to routine prevention and screening for disease. The Caritas Internal Medicine Clinic is open Monday thru Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., serves an ethnically diverse patient population, and delivers the highest quality care to an underserved and vulnerable population in Colorado. We have an extraordinary ancillary staff that includes acute transitional care, social workers, referral coordinators, behavioral health psychologist, and substance abuse counselors in addition to our bilingual front desk and medical assistants who work diligently to support our patient and the residents through training.
Continuity Clinic
The continuity clinic at Caritas Internal Medicine is required for all categorical residents. The Internal Medicine Resident will receive extensive training in ambulatory care and preventative medicine. The resident functions as the primary care provider, making all management decisions regarding their patients under the supervision of the Internal Medicine faculty. Residents are scheduled to see patients one full day twice a month throughout residency training to maximize continuity of care. You begin your ambulatory experience with three days of orientation to the clinic that includes shadowing a senior resident and introductions to all clinic departments. You will initially be scheduled 2 patients per half day and progress throughout residency to seeing 13 patients per full day of clinic. Intermountain Healthcare has chosen EPIC to manage electronic medical records and we utilize EPIC Ambulatory so residents have full access to inpatient and outpatient medical record data. During your continuity clinic you will receive an ambulatory didactic curriculum built on core primary care topics presented weekly by faculty and residents.
Ambulatory Clinic Block
During residency, all categorical residents are scheduled to complete a 1-month block of ambulatory care each academic year at Caritas Internal Medicine Clinic in addition to scheduled Continuity Clinic dates. Residents experience a variety of outpatient specialty clinics during the Ambulatory Clinic Block that includes Acute Clinic – same/next day appointment for urgent issues; Joint Clinic – joint injections; Dermatology Clinic – work directly with a dermatologist attending to perform routine dermatology focused primary care evaluation and procedures. Additionally, upper level / senior residents spend 3 day rotating at Colorado’s largest malpractice insurance carrier (COPIC) to gain knowledge around legal matters as it pertains to general medical practice. The Resident of the Month is also responsible for triaging patient telephone calls for medical advice, and supporting ancillary staff for ongoing patient care needs in the clinic.
After Hours Care of Caritas Clinic Patients
When Caritas Internal Medicine patients have after hours medical needs the initial call is received / triaged by an answering service, and urgent medical needs are paged to the clinic on-call pager covered by the on-call resident who is in the hospital.
Inpatient Care of Caritas Patients
When a Caritas Internal Medicine patient is evaluated in the Emergency Department, the primary care physician receives a summary of the care provided to the patient. The resident is expected to review the summary of care and communicate any special follow-up needed to the Transitional Care Coordinator Should the patient require admission, they are admitted to the inpatient faculty teaching service. The resident for the patient will receive notification of admission and they are expected to follow the hospital course of care through the electronic medical record and although it is appreciated by patients to receive a courtesy visit, the inpatient medical team will round on the patient and provide the assigned primary care physician a discharge summary. Once the discharge summary is reviewed, the primary care physician should communicate with the Transitional Care Coordinator regarding appropriate follow-up needs for the patient.
Caritas Internal Medicine Quality Improvement
PGY-2 and PGY-3 Internal Medicine Residents are required to be involved in quality improvement projects for Caritas Internal Medicine. An emphasis is placed on a topic of interest to the resident and should focus on a direct benefit to clinic patient outcomes. The PGY-3 residents are expected to present their quality improvement project to the residency program at the end of the academic year.