Primary Care Track

Interested in Ambulatory Internal Medicine?

Why Primary Care?

• Need for well-trained and compassionate General Internists in our current healthcare crises to address
  • Access
  • Value
  • Quality of care
• General Internists take care of both chronic and acute conditions with emphasis on prevention
• Need for coordination of care with subspecialists for complex patients
• Need for General Internists to take care our aging and expanding population
• Provide leadership in clinical medicine, academics, community outreach and patient advocacy
• Primary care work = nice work/life balance

What is the difference between a Primary Care Track and Categorical Track?

• Emphasis on rotations in ambulatory medicine to better prepare the resident for needed skills as a primary care physician
  • Addiction Medicine
  • Dermatology
  • Diabetic Education
  • ENT
  • Good Samaritan Hospital, Kearney, NE
  • Head/Movement Disorders
  • Midlands Clinic
  • Ophthalmology
  • Pain Clinic
  • PM&R
  • Podiatry
  • Psychiatry
  • Rural Health
  • Sports Medicine
  • Underserved Populations
  • Urology
  • Women’s Health
  • Wound Care
  • Other rotations available
• Less emphasis on inpatient rotations
• More outpatient weeks of Cardiology, Endocrinology, Rheumatology
• One half day per week of continuity clinic at either Bergan Mercy or VA
• Work closely with the General Internal Medicine faculty and subspecialists
• Flexible program design to meet individual interests of the resident. Primary Care Track residents rotate through the same inpatient clinical rotations as Categorical residents, but have additional dedicated time devoted to primary care medicine
• Mentorship with experienced GIM faculty
• Primary Care Track has a separate match through its unique National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) match number

Our Mission

"General Internal Medicine physicians provide patients with a full range of treatment, from primary to complex care – the General Internist takes care of the most complicated adult patients with chronic illnesses and multiple co-morbidities and also cares for young, healthy patients.” – SGIM: Proud to be GIM

Healthcare in the United States has a problem: too many specialists and not enough primary care physicians, especially General Internists. The reasons for the poor turnout of primary care oriented internists are many: emphasis on training of hospitalized patients, less compensation, less respect, etc. One study showed that many trainees who are interested in primary care at the start of their training ended up losing their interest due to unsatisfying experiences. Other studies have shown that primary care curriculums that provide fulfilling experiences in ambulatory Internal Medicine can reverse this trend. Many Internal Medicine residency programs have adopted a primary care track with great success.

Our Goals

We propose the creation of primary care track with the following goals in mind:

• New and innovative delivery systems to improve patient care and ease of practice
• Provide state of the art care of our diverse patient populations
• Emphasis on caring for our elderly patients and the prevention of hospitalization
• Leadership QI and Scholarly training
• Expansion of continuity clinic sites
• An excellent continuity clinic experience – PCMH certified
• Expansion of ambulatory subspecialty training (i.e., Orthopedics, Dermatology, Pain Management, Telemedicine, etc.)
• Grow your own – retain talented Creighton graduates to serve at CHI clinics