Broad-based experiences and quality facilities
As a resident at Reading Hospital’s Family Medicine Residency Program, you will be exposed to tremendous variety while actively treating the culturally and socioeconomically diverse patient population from all walks of life, all types of insurances, urban, suburban, and rural. From prenatal to geriatric, you will truly be their physician.
Below is a quick glimpse of some specialized areas.
Family Medicine
Our residents – side by side with accomplished, talented faculty – care for a diverse population in our office and hospital. You will care for patients of all ages in the Family Health Care Center, where patient visits top 14,000 annually. You will receive training in procedural skills, chronic disease management, practice management, preventive care, newborn, well-child, gynecologic, and behavioral healthcare.
Since 2010, our clinical site, the Family Health Care Center, has followed a Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) model and we have been a leader in preparing resident physicians for the changing healthcare world. The “Epic” electronic health record is integrated throughout our health system. Please see our Curriculum page to learn more about our innovative X+Y scheduling model that better prepares our residents for future practice and reduces the fragmentation of training experiences.
Internal Medicine and Hospital Medicine
Our Family Medicine Inpatient Service is truly a family medicine service, with simultaneous care for adults, pediatrics, and newborns and with supervision by an experienced family medicine faculty. Residents take full 24-hour, 365-day ownership of the service while faculty physicians act in the role of consultant, safety net, and educator. Rotations in cardiology, neurology, dermatology, critical care, and ICU are also core components of the curriculum. Multiple elective opportunities exist.
Pediatrics
In today's medical education landscape, many institutions struggle to achieve robust pediatric training for their family medicine residents. In contrast, at Reading Hospital, both inpatient and outpatient pediatric training are a unique area of tremendous strength. Residents treat large volumes of inpatient and outpatient pediatric patients as supervised by dynamic family medicine and pediatric clinician educators. Our pediatric faculty are essentially extensions of our own core family medicine group and treat our family medicine residents with ownership. Approximately 25 percent of Family Health Care Center patients are pediatric. You will perform procedures including circumcisions and will have responsibility for pediatric advanced life support for all inpatients.
Women's Health
As a resident, you will work closely with a full-time family medicine-OB faculty member who performs obstetric care and board-certified obstetricians. All residents achieve fundamental competency and confidence in prenatal, perinatal, and postnatal patient care. For residents with a special interest in Family Medicine Obstetrics, the robust volume of babies delivered at Reading Hospital allows the flexibility to provide more experience to residents who desire advanced training. In addition to the Obstetrics and Maternal Fetal Medicine rotation blocks, residents will provide continuity of care to a minimum of five women through their entire pregnancy, caring for them from diagnosis to delivery and beyond.
Gynecology training combines experiences at our own Women's Health Center and in a private gynecology practice. Training in transgender medicine, domestic violence, and STIs is included. Residents gain skills in performing women's health office procedures including IUD placement, Nexplanon placement, and colposcopy among others. A point of care ultrasound curriculum is under development.
Components focusing on domestic violence, STI treatment, and labor and delivery alternatives exist.
Our residency is an active participant and contributor to the IMPLICIT Network, a learning collaborative of family medicine, maternal child health focused on improving birth outcomes and the health of women, birthing people, infants, and families.
Geriatrics
In addition to a block geriatric rotation where you will learn to perform geriatric assessment, training occurs longitudinally. You will care for your own inpatient/outpatient continuity geriatric patients as the primary physician for several nursing home patients.
Behavioral Medicine and Addiction Medicine
Residents work closely with our PhD psychologist in caring for our own Family Health Care Center patients. Behavioral medicine training is approached as a longitudinal experience, in addition to yearly block rotations. Residents are exposed to topics that explore your responses to difficult patients, issues that affect family health, substance abuse, psychopharmacology and treatment.
An Integrated Care Clinician is embedded within the Family Health Care Center to help facilitate access to behavior health services. We work closely with our psychiatry colleagues and one Grand Rounds presentation monthly is dedicated to psychiatric topics relevant to primary care. Components of our Addiction Medicine fellowship are incorporated into the Family Medicine Residency Program, including rotation at the Caron Foundation, a world-renowned drug and alcohol facility. An Opioid Management Clinic is embedded in the Family Health Care Center.
Population Health and Community Health
The present and future of family medicine is our connection to community. No longer do we simply treat the patient in the examination room. Instead, we seek to engage with our broad patient population in the context of their community, while addressing biopsychosocial barriers and seeking to eliminate healthcare disparities.
Residents are exposed to the effects of social, cultural, and economic influences on the lives and health of patients through a variety of experiences, including population health research and Western Berks Free Medical Clinic. Community agency volunteer opportunities are numerous, including a Street Medicine program for the homeless. For residents with a specific passion, our Resident Director of Community Medicine and Outreach leadership position and Community Medicine Committee allow residents to have even more intimate involvement. Plans exist to add additional components, including policy advocacy and community needs assessment.
Support for Your Education
Conferences and Meetings
Our conference series is highlighted by an entire afternoon of weekly protected educational time supplemented by additional morning reports that start our day with a scholarly mindset. Educational sessions are varied and focus on hands-on, interactive, practical applications. Monthly recurring themes include American Family Physician Journal Club, Monthly Evidence Pearls, information mastery, behavioral health, procedure training, and osteopathic practical sessions. There are also multiple offerings through collaboration with other academic departments. From case discussions to didactics, from procedural workshops to journal clubs, there is no shortage of education!
Library and Communication Services
You will have access to the David George, MD Medical Library, a comprehensive, multisource learning facility encompassing countless periodicals and databases. Our medical librarians are there to help you. Among many other resources and databases, physicians have access to Dynamed Plus, Micromedex, and the Johns Hopkins Antibiotic Guide embedded into the Epic electronic health record.
Research and Scholarly Activity
Scholarly activity is an integral part of a vibrant residency program. A culture of scholarly inquiry is a thread woven within the daily fiber of the program. Our Evidence Informed Decision Making Gold Certification Program focuses on the clinical application of Evidence Based Medicine and Information Mastery. Residents obtain certification upon graduation. We foster concepts of lifelong learning and the ability to answer clinical questions at the point of care using the best evidence. Particularly in population health, our research footprint continues to expand, including the Hanna Center for Primary Care Research. Residents complete at least one scholarly activity project during their residency.