The Department of Internal Medicine is one of seven medicine departments at CCHS. The department is involved in patient care through its outpatient clinic as part of the University Medical Center and its in-patient care at DCH, as well as academics.
The Internal Medicine outpatient facility at UMC provides primary care for adult patients. In addition to board-certified full-time and part-time clinicians, who diagnose and treat simple as well as complex medical problems, it has a board-certified neurologist who specializes in treating neurological disorders.
Teaching is an essential and vital aspect of the department’s mission. Medical students are required to rotate through the general internal medicine clinic as well as its subspecialist divisions. Through the clinic, faculty can admit patients to DCH Regional Medical Center, and in additon to teaching medical students, they assist the Family Medicine Residency program in offering additional training for their residents. The teaching is intensive and engaging because it involves treating very complex, complicated medical conditions. It is done in an organized fashion so that the faculty is involved in the first-hand care of patients, while also ensuring that the residents and students have excellent educational opportunities with close supervision.
A hospitalist service that cares for patients who are hospitalized (from outside the UMC Internal Medicine Clinic) is also involved in teaching residents and medical students.
A full-time Pharm.D. faculty, who oversees the training of Pharmacy residents and students, is part of the Internal Medicine treatment team in the hospital.
A private group of internists also contributes to the Internal Medicine teaching mission.
