Introduction

The Queens region of NYMC is a non-profit voluntary health care institution committed to serving the needs of the people of Queens. It is composed of Mary Immaculate Hospital (MIH) and Saint Johns Queens Hospital (SJQH). As of January 1, 2007, these two hospitals became the Caritas division of the Brooklyn Queens Health Care of New York institution. The Brooklyn area facility is Wyckoff Heights Medical Center. New York Medical College continues as the sponsoring academic institution.

“Education is the brightest jewel in the crown of Caritas.” Caritas has a strong commitment to Graduate Medical Education. There are six free-standing ACGME residencies: Orthopaedic Surgery; Ophthalmology; OB/GYN; General Surgery; Family Medicine; Internal Medicine, which has four Fellowships: Infectious Disease; Pulmonary Medicine; Cardiology; and Geriatrics. There are also fully accredited residencies in General Dentistry, Oral Surgery, and Podiatry.

Philosophy of the Orthopaedic Residency Program

The philosophy of the department is to present a highly organized and closely supervised education program to the Residents over a five year period. The guiding teaching methodologies are adult education, with integration and correlation of didactic subject material into the daily delivery of orthopaedic healthcare to patients. We strongly support the tenet that the Caritas faculty should be the primary teacher for our Residents. Our program goal is to produce a graduate who has the prerequisite competences in the cognitive, psychomotor, and affective skills to enter directly into the practice of general orthopaedics or to enter a quality Fellowship.

The Teaching Faculty

There are a total of five full-time, and four voluntary Attendings who serve as faculty in the program. Most of the Attending staff have a subspecialty skill and have taken continuing medical education courses to enhance their expertise. They are expected to bring this new knowledge and cutting edge information back to the program to impart to the Resident staff, both in theory and in practice.

Patient Volume and Variety

• The volume and variety of clinical problems presenting to the Resident staff of Caritas is more than adequate for the Resident's education.

• Pediatric orthopaedic disorders are seen in the SJQH neonatal nursery; in the MIH Pediatric Orthopaedic Clinic on Tuesday; as in-patient consultations; during the three-month pediatric orthopaedic rotation at Orthopaedic Institute; in the emergency departments; and in the general orthopaedic ambulatory clinics.

• Adolescent problems are managed in the general clinics, and the Saturday morning program of public high school football game coverage. This includes pre-season and routine physical examinations, on-site coverage of games, and follow-up of injuries in the private physician's offices and the general clinics.

• There is an abundance of arthroscopic operative experience in the treatment of injuries and degenerative disorders of the middle aged population.

• The Borough of Queens has one of the largest proportions of senior citizens, with many orthopaedic patients being above 80 years of age.

• The MIH Level I Trauma Center provides multi-system injured patients and complex musculoskeletal injuries.

• There is a large amount of hand trauma which is managed by the orthopaedic Residents because there is no competing general surgery hand or plastic surgery service.

•  All Residents attend the Orthotics and Prosthetics course at New York University.

•  At no time does a resident rotate to a non-ACGME training program.

Continuity of Care

A unique aspect of this program is that the Residents have long-term follow-up of all operative and nonoperative patients. Because of the small residency size and the arrangement of the clinic schedule, all Residents on each rotation attend every outpatient clinic session. This means that the patients treated in the emergency department are also seen by the same Resident in follow-up. Those patients who are being followed for a degenerative disease for a number of years continue to see the same Resident staff with which they are familiar. Additionally the Residents have assignments in the private offices of the faculty.