Frequently asked questions
What are the advantages of having multiple residencies in a community based hospital like York Hospital?
- Richer academic environment
- Greater amount of teaching
- Richer educational facilities and resources including an excellent Research department, a library and a state-of-the-art medical simulation center.
- More full time teachers/faculty on all services and more structured teaching services
- Increased number of medical students
- Increased availability of conferences with many nationally recognized speakers from surrounding medical schools
- Plenty of patient volume
- Promoting collaborative and collegial work with colleagues in other fields and learning appropriate use of consultants
- More opportunities to teach and grow as a doctor
Are family medicine residents in the York Hospital program treated as second class citizens?
York’s family medicine residency was established in 1968. Many of its graduates and other family physicians play key leadership roles in York County, which bolsters the regard and support for the specialty. The collegiality enjoyed by residents is promoted from the top of the WellSpan organization. Family physicians hold the following positions of leadership in our organization:
- Vice President of Medical Affairs - Peter Hartman, MD
- Director of Medical Education - Richard Sloan, RPh, MD
- Vice President of WellSpan Medical Group - Thomas McGann, MD
- President of Gettysburg Hospital - Kevin Moser, MD
- Various past and current presidents of the Medical Staff of York Hospital - including Ed Nelson, MD and Cathy Carpenter, MD
How much night call?
G-1 residents: Average is every fourth night. There is no call during FP outpatient, Gyn Surgery or Ophthamology rotations..
G-2 residents: First call is from 5 p.m. - 9 p.m., Monday - Thursday and 5 p.m. - 8 a.m. Fridays. Weekend call is either a 12 or 24 hour shift. All together there are approximately 30 calls in a year - less than once a week. While on your six week obstetrical rotation in Gettysburg Hospital, you will not be asked to take regular call for York Hospital.
G-3 residents: Similar to G-2 schedule above except there is no obstetrical rotation in the G-3 year..
Night Float: In response to a robust inpatient and obstetrical service, and to comply with resident work hour restrictions, a night float system was created. The night float resident is in house from 9 p.m. - 7 a.m., Sunday - Thursday. There is always an assigned back-up person to help if needed.
OB Backup: As a residency, we encourage our residents to support continuity in patient care from their first year. Nowhere is this more important than in our longitudinal obstetrical patients. Every effort is made for the primary resident following an obstetrical patient to be integrally involved in all aspects of prenatal care and the birthing process. The resident should be available for management of labor and delivery with an attending once their patient has reached her due date, unless prior arrangements have been made for resident coverage.
How much elective time?
Four months in the third year and two months in the second year. Popular electives include additional emergency medicine and outpatient orthopedics, infectious disease, endocrinology and neurology.
What are the strengths and weaknesses?
We have excellent teaching available in our program for in-patient family medicine and the care of children. These are definite strengths. Another definite strength is our busy and diverse office practice in the Family Practice Center. We also see the support from the community and other residencies as strong pluses in our program. The most stated weakness, by interviewing applications, is our location. We are not located in a large city. There is, however, easy access to Baltimore (45 minute driving time), Washington (two hours driving time) and Philadelphia (one and one-half hours driving time). Many residents have found that living in southern York County or nortern Maryland provides excellent opportunities for significant others to work in and around Baltimore.
What changes might I expect from year to year?
Change is a healthy sign, evidence of new ideas, flexibility, and a willingness to experiment. Most changes occur in the area of curriculum development. Each resident is challenged to set personal and career goals for three years of formal training. Progress in areas of individual emphasis is regularly reviewed. Both residents and attendings receive evaluations following each rotation. Residents maintain a strong voice in the residency and we pride ourselves on continually trying to "fine tune" and improve all experiences.
What computer and informatics’ resources are used by the residents?
The Thomas M. Hart Family Practice Center, our principle practice site, utilizes an electronic medical record that is accessible to physicians both in our office and remotely. All laboratory results, digital images from our imaging department, pharmacy information, consultant letters, and office records can be quickly accessed by any authorized user. The York Hospital is part of a fully integrated health system that supports a wireless environment and hundreds of conveniently located desktop computers. WellSpan Health was named among the “Top 100 Most Integrated Health Networks” by Verispan, a health care data and consulting firm in Yardley, Pa. for the fourth time.
What is the composition of our faculty?
Our full-time faculty include 8 board-certified family physicians with over 150 years of practice experience. Three are double boarded in geriatrics and one is double boarded in sports medicine. 7 maintain active practice in maternity care. This core is complemented by an internal medicine consultant, a clinical psychologist who coordinates behavioral science and family dynamics, and over 25 family physicians who are part-time office preceptors.
Our depth and breadth of faculty experience makes it possible for family physicians to teach the residents the essential elements of family medicine in the office, hospital wards, nursing home, and labor hall. Our faculty has a distinguished record of national, regional and local awards. Many additional volunteer faculty are drawn from all specialties that serve the York community.
What is the patient profile?
The Family Practice Center provided comprehensive health services for more than 10,000 individuals (approximately 3,700 families), and recorded over 25,000 office visits this past year. The Center generated nearly 5,000 hospital patient visits. The gender distribution of our practice is approximately 44% male and 56% female. 35% are pediatrics visits.
How are residents selected?
Eight first-year resident positions in family medicine are offered. Selection is by committee, composed of administrators, faculty and housestaff. Clinical evaluations, recommendations, interview feedback, and evidence of social concern are carefully weighed. Our hope is to select a resident group with diverse interests, strong character, and commitment to helping people.
Are there medical school affiliations?
Yes. While York is a community based and administered program, the hospital has education affiliations with Drexel University School of Medicine, the University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania State University at Hershey, Jefferson Medical College, the University of Maryland and Lake Erie College of Medicine.