Internal Medicine Residency Program

Curriculum

Our rigorous 3-year curriculum (outlined below) is augmented by a collegial teaching atmosphere in which attendings, residents, and medical students all contribute to continued learning. We also learn from top-notch specialists and fellows. Our patient population is diverse, including the large underserved and uninsured population in East Hollywood. We experience a wide variety of cases as the major tertiary medical center for the KP Southern California region and its 4.7 million members.   

We are a major teaching site for Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, and Keck School of Medicine of USC. All house officers actively participate in teaching KPSOM, UCLA, USC, and other visiting medical students. Over a hundred Kaiser Permanente medicine attendings hold academic faculty appointments at UCLA and KPSOM. 

Inpatient Wards

Our Inpatient Wards experience is truly interdisciplinary. Resident teams consist of an attending, one senior, two interns, one sub-intern, one MS3 student, a case manager, and a social worker; each team works in their own large, dedicated workroom. Senior residents also work with Utilization Management (UM) to identify and solve barriers to discharge.   

All attending hospitalists are teaching faculty – you will not encounter “private” patients. The hospital group is large, and you will experience various teaching styles and methods, but common to all attendings is their dedication to the residency program.   

During rounds, attendings, colleagues and medical students all contribute to learning, including dedicated presentations, and review of landmark articles and the latest evidence-based medicine.   

The cross-coverage system allows teams to sign out at 5pm on non-call days, allowing residents time for reading.  

Capstone Rotation

Our unique Capstone Rotation is specially designed as a capstone to a resident’s training. A senior resident works one-on-one with an attending and experiences life as a hospitalist. The attending is able to focus on the senior resident, tailoring rounds to build up the resident’s skills, including efficiency and building rationale while reviewing landmark articles.   

The capstone rotation includes a week with our Quality and Safety departments, during which residents attend local and regional level meetings and get a unique behind-the-scenes look at hospital operations. The resident is also trained in quality improvement principles, which is utilized to present a mortality and morbidity conference. 

Continuity Clinic

During their three years, categorical house staff spend time in our nationally acclaimed ambulatory program. Remodeled in 2020, the Resident Ambulatory Care Center offers cutting-edge and evidence-based training in primary care. In this clinic, residents participate in a weekly seminar and provide continuity care to their assigned panel of patients.  

Our clinic experience is a true continuity experience. Interns inherit a panel of patients, which grow over time as they are assigned new patients or continue to follow patients from their inpatient experiences. Residents develop meaningful therapeutic relationships with their patients.  

Residents also work closely with a consistent pool of nursing staff and attendings and develop teamwork and communication to improve efficiency and patient care. You will also experience population care by leveraging our electronic medical record system to achieve clinical strategic goals.   

Subspecialty Rotations

Our hospital receives referrals from all of the other Kaiser Permanente medical centers for higher level of care. As such, our hospital is among the busiest in the nation in terms of volume for specialty procedures such as cardiac catheterizations, cardiac surgeries, and endoscopies. Our Medical Center is a Comprehensive Stroke Center as designated by the joint commission.   

During your subspecialty rotations, not only will you see a wide range of pathologies, but you will see the full power of a fully integrated health care system in our wide range of transitional care programs and as patients seamlessly transition between outpatient and inpatient and outpatient diagnostic tests as well as between subspecialists and primary care.   

Electives

You will be able to shape your curriculum with 22 weeks of electives. We offer a wide variety of in-house electives from which to choose, but you also have the option of pursuing electives at other institutions. You may also utilize your electives to pursue your research interests. 

Conferences

Academic time, including Morning Report, Lectures, and attending rounds, is protected and prioritized so that residents can attend conferences and rounds with minimal disturbance.

Lectures

Specialist attendings and fellows focus on the most up-to-date diagnostic and treatment practices in their fields. 

Morning Report

Residents discuss complex patients as well as bread-and-butter cases to develop clinical reasoning, a focused differential, an accurate assessment, and a thorough plan. 

Journal Club

Residents examine the latest research from various fields of medicine with guest specialists. Residents also acquire the tools necessary to critically analyze medical literature to prepare for their own research projects. 

Morbidity and Mortality Conferences

Residents facilitate monthly, interdisciplinary Morbidity and Mortality conferences to investigate root causes for adverse events and create action plans for implementation. This is in line with our program’s focus on continuous quality improvement.  

Board Review

Physicians from different subspecialties host monthly board reviews to supplement digital MKSAP subscriptions purchased for every resident. During board reviews, the subspecialists teach the most high-yield topics and give clinical context to board questions. 

Grand Rounds

National and in-house experts discuss systemic issues like COVID-19, Healthcare Access, LGBTQ issues, Family Violence, along with common medicine topics like Sepsis, Hypertensive Crisis and Stroke. All medical center physicians attend and contribute to these discussions for interdisciplinary learning. 

Additional Programs

Study Abroad

Your schedule is flexible and can accommodate Study Abroad experiences throughout the year. Learn more about the different opportunities here https://residency-scal-kaiserpermanente.org/globalhealth/ 

Simulations/Procedures

During intern boot camp week and throughout the year, residents take advantage of our newly remodeled simulation lab to practice bedside procedures and code blue simulations to build knowledge and confidence. 

POCUS Training

Since 2017, our program has offered formal Point-of-Care Ultrasound Training, including practice on live patients in the Cardiac ICU and in our state-of-the art Simulation Lab. Each rounding team is equipped with their own GE VScan, which residents use during bedside rounding. We also have our own dedicated Zonare ZS3 for use for various procedures. All graduates become proficient in performing bedside POCUS during everyday patient care.  

Sample Schedule:

Our curriculum fulfills all of the latest ACGME requirements; you will rotate through each of the subspecialties. Consequently, our graduates are well prepared for advanced fellowship training and for careers as hospitalists or generalists.  

Our schedule is unique in that it seeks to immerse you in subspecialties earlier in your training to provide you with crucial context as you learn medicine. Also, as each year is divided into 26 two-week rotations, you will have the opportunity to revisit rotations at different times, which we believe enhances your learning.  

*For categoricals.