General Internal Medicine
General Internal Medicine
The mission of the ETSU Health, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine is to provide state of the art primary care to the citizens of our region and to train medical students and resident physicians to become excellent compassionate physicians. Many of our physicians are available to see new patients, and all provide long-term continuity of care to our established patient population. Our physicians are certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and hold faculty appointments in the Department of Internal Medicine at East Tennessee State University Quillen College of Medicine. Faculty hold key leadership positions within the department including Executive Program Director, several Associate Program Directors, and Co-clerkship directors for the Internal Medicine third year student rotation.
Clinical Sites
The clinical sites supported by the division include the Clinical Education Building site in Johnson City and the Sheridan Square site in Kingsport. Growth plans for our division include emphasis on scholarship in practice-related areas and recruitment of additional faculty. Recruitment is currently underway for a traditional track general internist as well as for an embedded hospitalist. All physicians maintain active hospital privileges at Johnson City Medical Center or Holston Valley Medical Center and provide care for the group’s hospitalized patients. The group’s primary charge is thus twofold: to provide comprehensive primary care to adult patients and, while doing so, to accomplish effective teaching for resident physicians and students in both the outpatient and inpatient sectors.
Scholarly Activities
The faculty in the Johnson City Division of General Internal Medicine actively participate in the educational mission of the Quillen College of Medicine beginning with the first year students. Specifically, each faculty member serves as a weeklong preceptor for a first and second year student annually. Additionally, the faculty participate in the Physical Diagnosis course in one-on-one format sessions utilizing standardized patients. The faculty also participate 3-4 times yearly in the second year Practicing Medicine course which consists of small group (8 students) sessions and utilize case based presentations of various topics with in depth discussion. More extensive teaching of third and fourth year students and residents (PGY I, II, III) occurs when the faculty attend on the Johnson City Medical Center hospital service. Formal morning report with topic presentations is done three times weekly. Bedside teaching of medical students and residents takes place daily on work rounds.
Fourth year students and medical residents rotate on outpatient electives in the ETSU Health outpatient clinic and are paired with different individual faculty daily. The Division has compiled a syllabus covering a variety of outpatient and preventive medicine topics. Included in the syllabus is an exam with answers for individual study purposes. Each faculty member precepts a weekly half day resident continuity clinic composed of 3-4 residents. In summary, the faculty participate at all levels of medical student and resident education with the greater time commitment in the clinical student rotations and resident medical education.