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Program Requirements * : Step 1 cut-off 75 Program Type: Community hospital, university affiliated  Carraway Methodist Medical Center, a major teaching and referral hospital, is the heart of the Carraway system. Located on a large campus near downtown Birmingham, the medical center is a strong, vibrant institution with a $100 million investment in medical technology. It now offers an accredited transitional postgraduate year, as well as accredited residency programs in family medicine, general surgery and internal medicine.
The medical center maintains a close working relationship with the University of Alabama School of Medicine (UASOM). Medical students from UASOM and other schools regularly participate in assigned and elective rotations at Carraway.
A Carraway Residency
There is a truly collegial atmosphere in Carraway residency programs, an atmosphere born of mutual respect between residents and attendings. People are on a first name basis and take time to learn about one another. Attending physicians view themselves as mentors. The emphasis is on sharing information and supporting residents as they develop skills and experience to increasingly take on more responsibility for patient care. Residents have the space to learn and the security of knowing attending physicians are always ready and willing to support them. A Carraway residency also offers an optimal mix of academic and practical medicine. Residents are exposed to the pragmatic demands of a daily medical practice, but this is only part of the picture. Many physicians in the Carraway system are engaged in significant research projects, and every patient on the campus is available for teaching purposes. This ensures residents see a large number of patients and a wide variety of clinical problems in an environment where bedside manner and the pursuit of knowledge are both valued. Because Carraway is a dynamic system, rapidly evolving to meet the needs of the future, it offers residents a rare opportunity to learn how to provide quality care in a radically changing delivery system. Daily Concerns People learn best in a warm, supportive environment. That is why Carraway devotes so much effort to fostering a collegial relationship between attendings and residents. That is why the residency programs at Carraway strive to maintain an appropriate balance between supervision and independence in patient care. That is why residents are often allowed to structure their own call schedules. A residency is an exciting time of rapid learning and personal development, a time when the support of family and friends is very important. Developing their call schedules gives residents more flexibility to balance demands of the educational program with other aspects of life. Unlike many other programs, Carraway does not burden residents with the minutiae of medical care. Allied health professionals perform tasks that are often assigned to physicians in training in other institutions. This frees Carraway residents to care for patients and focus on the goals of the educational program. Goals
The Internal Medicine Residency at Carraway Methodist Medical Center (CMMC) is designed to train residents to become effective state-of-the-art general internists and provide them with skills necessary for primary care practice, hospitalist careers or fellowship training. The program is fully accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education to offer eight positions at each level. The program provides a learning experience based on well-supervised patient care responsibility, exposure to academic medicine and clinical research, and an understanding of professional ethics and human behavior. Our affiliation with the University of Alabama School of Medicine in Birmingham provides our residents with the flexibility of taking some rotations at the university. Internal medicine is changing. As health care evolves, health maintenance organizations and group practices will often define the role of internists. We feel that training in the setting of large private multispecialty group practices that are actively positioning themselves to effectively deal with the current changes in health care provides the resident with the best opportunity to develop the broad knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in this evolving environment. The program encourages the acceptance of patient care responsibility while providing daily interaction with experienced, dedicated attending physicians, including general internists and specialists in virtually every subspecialty of internal medicine. Since we are a relatively small program, one of our main strengths is the close working relationship and camaraderie between our attendings and residents. Our philosophy is to regard residents as colleagues, working together in a congenial and academic atmosphere, while providing our patients outstanding health care. Inpatient Activities
The program is centered at the CMMC campus, which includes the hospital, Norwood Clinic (NC), Carraway Medical Foundation (CMF) and other group practices that are physically adjacent to CMMC. General internists and subspecialists in the CMMC Department of Medicine serve as the principal teaching attendings for the program. All patients on the CMMC campus are available for teaching purposes. These patients are derived from the attending physicians' private practices, residents' continuity clinics, emergency department admissions and referrals from outside physicians. This results in exposure to a broad spectrum of clinical pathology from common general medical problems to critical care. During the first postgraduate year, each resident spends six months on the general internal medicine teaching services, four months on internal medicine subspecialty rotations, one month in the Emergency Department and one month on a non-medicine elective.
Electives include dermatology, neurology, psychiatry, GYN-urology-STD, ENT-ophthalmology-allergy, sports medicine, and other fields of interest. On each rotation, the resident works closely with other residents, medical students and the attending physician. A typical general medicine service consists of an attending, an upper-level resident, two first-year residents and possibly a third-year medical student. Each first-year resident is responsible for eight to 12 patients. A subspecialty service usually consists of one resident and one attending. Residents are expected to assume patient care responsibility appropriate for their level of training. Residents actively participate in teaching medical students who spend time at our hospital on general internal medicine and subspecialty rotations. Since Carraway does not have subspecialty fellows, residents have a greater opportunity to become proficient in a variety of procedures, including Swan-Ganz catheters, central venous lines, bone marrow biopsies, thoracenteses, etc. Residents are allowed considerable flexibility in scheduling their own call, which averages every fifth night. While on call, first-year residents work closely with senior residents. At all times, general internists and medical subspecialists provide additional back-up. A morning report is held several times each week for residents and students on call. Ambulatory Medicine
Residents at all levels of training attend the Internal Medicine Community Care Clinic each week. Each resident develops his/her own ambulatory practice and follows these patients until completion of training, having primary responsibility for their care. A clinic patient who requires hospitalization is admitted to the service to which his/her resident is assigned at the time. A full-time attending physician, based at the Community Care Clinic is present during each session to supervise and teach the residents. In addition, residents take full-month block rotations at Norwood Clinic, Carraway Medical Foundation and other practice settings. These rotations are devoted to ambulatory general medicine and subspecialty care in cardiology, pulmonary medicine, gastroenterology and hematology-oncology. Patients with general medical and subspecialty problems are seen and managed by the resident under attending supervision. During these rotations residents have an opportunity to become proficient in outpatient procedures such as GXTs, echocardiography, pulmonary function testing, flexible sigmoidoscopy and arthrocenteses.
Conferences Medical conferences are conducted daily. These include Morning Report, Medical Grand Rounds, Professor's Rounds, Ambulatory Care and subspecialty conferences. Teaching Rounds are held at least three times a week. Journal clubs, which are evidence based, and medical mobidity and mortality conferences are also conducted. Resident education is also enhanced by local and national meeting attendance, Medical Knowledge Self-Assessment Program subscriptions and opportunities for research. Residents have access to computers that they utilize for medical data base searches, research and graphic capabilities. Evaluation
As recommended by the American Board of Internal Medicine, the clinical performance of each resident is evaluated throughout the program. Private conferences are held with the resident at six-month intervals to discuss progress and performance. The resident also evaluates his/her experiences in the program regularly.
Vacation Each year, in addition to usual holidays, residents receive two weeks of vacation, one week off during the Christmas/New Year period, and up to five days of personal or professional leave. Summary The internal medicine residency provides an optimal blend of experience in private practice and academic medicine, while also providing patient care responsibility with appropriate supervision. Three-fourths of residents completing this program enter the practice of general internal medicine, with the remainder pursuing subspecialty interests. Faculty
 Program Director: Dennis G. Delgado, M.D.
Applicant Eligibility Criteria Participation in NRMP and ERAS Proof of eligibility for legal employment in the U.S. Proficient with verbal & written communication, using English language Evidence of sound academic performance Graduates of schools not accredited by LCME or American Osteopathic Association must meet all requirements for ECFMG certification and (2) of the following criteria:
Visa’s Accepted by CMMC: H-1B & J-1 (must have in hand prior to entering program—we do not sponsor) All applicants must have graduated from an approved medical school prior to the commencement of their residency. The residency appointment is contingent upon the applicant’s providing CMMC with proof of such graduation. Application deadline is December 31. Interviews will be scheduled for Nov 1-Jan 31. Benefits of training in internal medicine at Carraway Methodist Medical Center
At Carraway Methodist Medical Center (CMMC) residents receive state-of-the-art clinical training in skills necessary for primary care practice, hospitalist careers or fellowship training. This is accomplished in an environment that is friendly, personal and academic. Program affiliation with several on-campus group practices, as well as our close working relationship with the University of Alabama at Birmingham, allows our residents to develop expertise in managing a broad spectrum of clinical disorders from the critically ill to common, general medical problems. At CMMC and affiliated clinics, all patients are utilized for teaching. Private patients are not off limits to residents. Residents have primary responsibility for their patients, and there are no fellows to compete with for procedures.
Call Schedule
All residents meet monthly with the chief medical resident to schedule their call. First year residents take in-house call on average every fifth night. Second and third year residents usually take in-house call every sixth night. Overall call ranges from every fourth to seventh night. Residents on all rotations have at least two, and frequently three, weekends off each month.
Fellowships
The majority of residents completing the program are interested in primary care. Of those residents who do seek fellowships, more than 90 percent of them attain quality fellowships at prestigious institutions like Emory University, Tulane University, UAB and the University of Virginia, among others.
Recent Graduates
Of the recent graduates who elected not to pursue fellowships, more than 75 percent are practicing medicine in Alabama. Most are in private, primary care group practices with many continuing their affiliation with Carraway. Recently, a growing number are working as hospitalists in the Birmingham area while others are employed as emergency department physicians.
Interview Experiences *: Residency Experiences *: |
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