Outpatient Training

Residents in our program gain ambulatory experience at the Heartland Armstrong Clinic, an FQHC site. Each resident follows a panel of their own patients in their continuity clinic. All residents see clinic patients one full day a week every other week throughout the three years of training. In an average half-day clinic, a resident sees 3 to 9 patients, depending on their level of training and experience. Faculty members are always present and available in the clinic to staff patients, answer questions, assist with patient care, and provide instruction when the residents are seeing patients.

Residents’ ambulatory education is enhanced by 15-minute “pre-clinic” sessions held before the morning and afternoon portions of the clinic day. These didactic sessions, led by faculty preceptors or chief residents, provide concise reviews on a wide range of topics relevant to ambulatory medicine, including chronic disease management, cancer screening, chart reviews for quality assurance, office billing and coding, and many more. This pre-clinic instruction is supplemented by an on-line curriculum accessed via the program website with links to assigned readings and web-based learning tools.

The Heartland Armstrong clinic is located on the OSF-Saint Francis Medical Center (OSF-SFMC) campus. This facility provides adjacent clinic space for Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Med-Peds, and OB-GYN residents, offering residents the ability to use each other as resources for ambulatory care.

Senior Outpatient/Ambulatory Rotation (a.k.a. SOAR)

PGY2 and PGY3 residents spend one month each academic year rotating in the clinic evaluating outpatients with acute illnesses as well as those needing early follow-up after hospitalization. An advanced outpatient curriculum includes training in outpatient practice improvement and other clinical and business aspects of ambulatory practice.

Ambulatory Intern Rotation (a.k.a. AIR)

This month-long clinic rotation designed for first year residents is designed to allow interns to learn the basics of outpatient medicine. There are a variety of experiences including lectures, direct patient care, self-guided learning, educational modules, and several didactic sessions taught by faculty.