Elective Information – Hospitalist at Pen Bay Medical Center and Waldo County General Hospital

Pre-requisite: Completion of PGY-1 and the first half of PGY-2 of FM or IM residency

Duration for Elective: 4 weeks preferred (15 days on over 4 weeks, schedule to be determined based on faculty availability). 2 weeks possible (10 days on over two weeks, schedule TBD)

Rotation Directors: Elizabeth Carson, MD

Contact MERGE to sign up for this elective rotation

Educational Objective

To provide the second or third year IM or FM resident with clinical experience in inpatient hospital medicine in a community hospital setting.

Experiences and Procedures

  • Work closely with a supervising attending hospitalist or critical care intensivist to provide evidence-based care to hospitalized patients at the acute and ICU levels of care in a community hospital setting. 
  • Experience practicing hospital medicine with increased autonomy at both a mid-sized community hospital (Pen Bay) and a small critical access hospital (Waldo). 
  • Enhance skills in point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) and learn to apply findings to clinical decision-making in hospital medicine. 
  • Perform procedures as indicated with attending supervision, including paracentesis, thoracentesis, lumbar puncture, as well as potential (rare) for intubation, and central line and arterial line placement (supervised by critical care attending, when available).  
  • Discuss admission requests with the emergency department physician to determine if admission to our facility is appropriate, level of care given the patient’s condition, and any additional immediate care that should be implemented. 
  • Participate in the interdisciplinary care rounds by communicating patient’s progress, addressing RN needs/concerns, and providing an estimated discharge date for care management to assist with disposition  
  • Determine appropriate diagnostic and therapeutic interventions – and help to coordinate patient transfers to tertiary care centers when indicated services are not available in-house.  
  • Complete hospital medicine consult requests for the ED and other specialty groups as requested.  
  • Request specialty consults as needed, formulating a clinical question and discussing the salient patient background information with the consultant.  

Housing

Depending on the season, this rotation may have housing available at no cost to the learner. When housing is not available through the rotation, residents may be reimbursed for housing expenses by the MERGE Collaborative. See the MERGE Housing Reimbursement Policy for more information.

Pen Bay Medical Center (above) and Waldo County General Hospital (below)