Family Medicine Los Angeles Medical Center - Curriculum

Goals & Objectives

The Residency Training Program at the Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center (LAMC) reflects Kaiser Permanente’s long-standing tradition of providing Family Medicine residents with the skills needed to become accomplished and compassionate physicians. Here you will find the best of all educational worlds, including direct patient responsibility and a large and diverse patient population. We build your residency around the concepts of comprehensive, cost-effective, family-oriented care.

Clinical care and procedural skills are emphasized in the Family Medicine Program. Residents take full responsibility for patients providing the full spectrum of treatment, from critical to ambulatory. Many of our graduates go on to careers in academic Family Medicine. Acclaimed for both clinical and research excellence, our Family Medicine Residency Program has received national awards in the past for quality of graduate education and for clinical research. In addition, the program has been the recipient of several national McNeil awards for Family Medicine clinical research.

Teaching Program

Residents learn by being hands on.  Supervision of residents is graded, with most senior PGY3 residents being able to work independently by the 2nd half of their third year.  Throughout the curriculum, didactic presentations and case discussion time occur in various clinic half-days. Topics covered include cultural competence, leadership development, residents as teachers, life after residency, coding, risk management, personal finances, marketing, contracts, billing, and use of computers. 

Throughout the curriculum, didactic presentations and case discussion time occur in various clinic half-days. Topics covered include cultural competence, leadership development, residents as teachers, life after residency, coding, risk management, personal finances, marketing, contracts, billing, and use of computers.

Clinical Experiences & Rotations

Family Medicine Clinic

The majority of outpatient skills are acquired and refined in the Family Medicine Clinic, where continuity care and urgent care experiences, closely mentored by faculty, are provided in high volume. First and second-year residents begin their half-day in clinic with a “chalk talk”.  Mentoring is immediately accessible with 1-2 faculty per clinic.

Interns spend one half-day a week in the Family Medicine Clinic; second-year residents two to three half-days a week; and third-year residents, three to four half days a week. When in the Family Medicine Clinic, residents have a personal office and two examination rooms to use. All resident offices are equipped with a personal computer and a high-speed printer. Virtual Care in the form of Telephone Visits is also part of the outpatient Family Medicine Clinic experience.

Inpatient Service

The Family Medicine inpatient service consists of one team composed of two interns and one second-year resident. A third-year resident supervises the inpatient service. The census for the team is approximately 10-15.

While on the Family Medicine inpatient service, primary care responsibility continues for patients admitted to the Coronary Care Unit (CCU) and surgical sub-specialty services. Rotations are two weeks in length. Interns are assigned to the Family Medicine service six times during the year; each second-year resident is assigned three times; and third-year residents serve as Chief of the Family Medicine service for a single six-week block. The Chief resident is also responsible for Wednesday morning didactic teaching for the inpatient team during this rotation.

During the intern year, residents spend four weeks rotating through the ICU. Similarly, during the second year, each resident spends four weeks caring for complicated medical patients in the CCU.

Teaching rounds are preceded by resident work rounds. Each Wednesday morning, there is either a lecture provided by the Chief resident or Ultrasound Rounds provided by faculty. Interns assigned to the medicine rotation take short admitting call in the Emergency Room.

Interns cover the medical surgical beds in the hospital overnight during a four-week rotation. Second-year residents cover the ICU with an intensivist during a six-week rotation. Third-year residents cover the CCU during a four-week rotation. Family Medicine covers these overnight calls every fifth night.

Partial Rotation Listing

• Intensive Care Unit
• Urology
• Coronary Care Unit
• Otolaryngology
• Emergency Medicine
• Ophthalmology
• Obstetrics & Gynecology
• Urgent Care
• Minor Procedures Clinic
• Behavioral Science
• Pediatrics
• Community Medicine
• Newborn nursery
• Geriatrics
• Longitudinal Prenatal Care Clinic
• Sports Medicine/Orthopedic

Elective/Selective Time

Two weeks in the intern year, four weeks in the second year and eight weeks elective time in the third year are provided for the resident to devote to those areas that would most benefit the resident’s future plans. There are an additional two weeks of selective time offered in both the second and third year which allow residents learning opportunities in one of many specific disciplines that they choose.

Research Resources

Kaiser Permanente is the second largest, completely integrated health care system in Southern California (2nd only to the VA). This allows for a database of patient information that lends itself to answering any research question a resident may have. Resident research is supported by the RRC (Residency Research Committee) through GME (Graduate Medical Education). Residents not only receive support creating a research question with faculty, but also benefit from their own biostatistician to assist in analyzing data. Additionally, the RRC-GME Research Mentorship program is an opportunity for residents who are selected to participate in a 1.5 year longitudinal curriculum on how to complete a research project. An expedited IRB process is available for residents in order that they may complete research projects during their three-year residency. Resident research is celebrated at the annual House Staff Research Day held at Kaiser Permanente, Los Angeles as well as at the annual UCLA Multi-campus Research Forum..