Core Policy Regarding Service and Non-Teaching Patients*
Overview
Historically, the University of Chicago Hospitals has been a pure “teaching hospital”; all patients admitted to UCH were teaching service patients. Over the past several years, this paradigm has changed. In an effort to better titrate service load and better manage trainee caseload qualitatively (ex. control transplant patient caseload), a number of non-teaching services have been developed. This has helped the University of Chicago Internal Medicine Residency better manage the balance of service and education, but does require the institution of policies regarding the interaction of residents with non-teaching patients.
Program Policy Regarding Service and Non-Teaching Patients
- Resident service responsibilities are limited to patients for whom the house staff routinely provides care (Dedicated Teaching Services: General Medicine, Cardiology, Oncology, CCU, MICU).
- Patients on non-teaching services are covered during the day and the night by mechanisms other than housestaff, unless the house officer is participating in an extra service pay shift (outside the curriculum).
- Residents can be called to evaluate a non-teaching patient only if the circumstances suggest that the patient requires immediate transfer to a teaching service.
Non-teaching service contacts:
Hospitalist Admissions: Pager 9100
*Note that core policies are those required by the ACGME. Many core policies will also be found embedded in the text of the University of Chicago, Internal Medicine Residency handbook