The following describes BMC's Family Medicine program highlights:

Patient-centered Primary Care

BMC is a founding partner of Boston HealthNet, a network of 15 community health centers through Boston serving more than a quarter-million people annually. Family medicine residents have the privilege of delivering primary care at one of four state-of-the-art Patient-Centered Medical Homes: Codman Square Health Center, East Boston Neighborhood Health Center, South Boston Community Health Center, and Greater Roslindale Medical and Dental Center. While each health center is uniquely reflective of the community where it is located, they all feature a breadth of on-site resources such as behavioral health and psychiatry, radiology, vision and dental services, sub-specialty care, and wellness programs, in order to provide  comprehensive, patient-centered primary care that empowers individuals to lead healthy lives.

From the first day of training, residents are assigned a panel of patients distributed by age, gender, and diagnosis so that over three years residents are exposed to a broad patient base. This experience is at the core of the residency program. All community health centers are located within the City of Boston and offer diverse patient populations, teaching opportunities and learning experiences for residents. First-year residents will care for their panel of patients one to two half-days per week; second-year residents care for their panel of patients two to four sessions per week, and third-year residents three to five times per week. Residents are responsible for patients in whatever setting they present, whether office, home, or tertiary care center. This orientation also extends to addressing unmet health care needs in our community, including coordination with schools, churches, and industry, and conducting innovative outreach to vulnerable populations. A strong emphasis is placed on the active management of patients within integrated service systems, especially as they apply to the needs of the undeserved.

Inpatient Adult Medicine 

In this video you will hear about the structure of our Family Medicine-run Inpatient Medicine Service at Boston Medical Center, the patient population that our teams care for, the learning that takes place due to inter-disciplinary team support as well as the progressive model of supervision and teaching that our inpatient structure provides.

Codman Square Health Center

East Boston Neighborhood Health Center

South Boston Community Health Center

Greater Roslindale Medical and Dental Center

 

Check out this news piece involving our recent graduate(2021) Julian Gonzalez, MD at Greater Roslindale Medical and Dental Center https://vimeo.com/444253098

Off-Service

This video highlights the experiences and relationships that our Family Medicine Residents have when rotating through non-Family Medicine services.

 

Off-Service Experiences

MCH/OB

Maternal/child health and maternity care are vital pieces of the work that we do in Family Medicine. Our department is strongly committed to training family doctors who are well-prepared to continue this work upon graduation.

All of our Family Medicine residents participate in continuity deliveries, providing a special opportunity to connect with patients and families. Each of our residency training sites offers prenatal care. Centering Pregnancy group prenatal care is offered at both Codman Square Health Center and Boston Medical Center, and Codman Square also offers Centering Parenting group visits.

At Boston Medical Center, we have a unique collaborative model of care on Labor and Delivery that is rooted in close teamwork with our OB/Gyn and Midwifery colleagues. As a resident trainee, you are integrated into a Labor and Delivery team that also includes OB residents and ED residents. The team is supervised 24 hours/day by a collaborative group of Family Medicine, OB/Gyn and Midwife attendings.

You will gain experience both in low-risk labor management and births, as well as high-risk maternity/obstetrics care and management of common complications. We have a total of 19 Family Medicine attending providers working on Labor & Delivery, 11 of whom are fellowship-trained operative providers who perform cesarean deliveries and tubal ligations.  We have a high volume of deliveries and plenty of opportunities for learning, with a total of 2,827 deliveries in AY22.  The expectation is for residents who are seeking OB competency to participate in at least 80 vaginal deliveries, and at least 25 vaginal deliveries for residents seeking OB-exposure.

We have a busy Family Medicine Mother/Baby Service that focuses on postpartum care of mother and infant dyads. We care for a number of patients with complex social and medical challenges, including opioid use disorder. You will gain expertise in caring for infants with neonatal abstinence syndrome. Boston Medical Center is proud to be a Baby-Friendly hospital (with re-designation confirmed in 2019), and there is a strong focus on supporting breastfeeding.

Reproductive Health

All residents gain experience in providing women's health and contraception in their continuity clinics and have exposure to the full spectrum of reproductive health care during their intern year Gynecology rotation. During their PGY2 & PGY3 year residents interested in gaining advanced experience in reproductive health can opt to participate in a structured reproductive health elective as well as additional sessions with a Family Medicine provider in the gynecologic procedures unit. Some residents have also opted to arrange away electives to further advance their reproductive health skills.

Addiction Medicine

With support from the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers, the BMC Family Medicine Residency program is working to expand training in addiction medicine for its FM residents. During their time at BMC, FM residents will learn to care for patients with a range of substance use disorders (SUD) including but not limited to opioids, alcohol, tobacco, and cocaine, in both the inpatient and outpatient/ambulatory settings. They will have opportunities to rotate and spend elective time on various BMC related addiction services, including the addiction consult services, Faster Paths (urgent care for SUD), Project Respect (prenatal clinic for patients with SUD), and Catalyst and SOFAR clinics (for adolescents with SUD). All residents are required to take the SCOPE of pain lecture by Dan Alford, which specifically addresses diagnosis and management of chronic pain. Residents have opportunities for involvement in office-based addiction treatment at all of our continuity sites, with special activities available at the South Boston and Roslindale practices.

Wellness

As a program, we recognize that the three years of residency can be quite

stressful. We have implemented teaching and programs to try and ease that stress. These include support groups for each class, regular Balint groups, facilitated sessions to support communication and support on our in-patient team, mindfulness training and other modalities, an advisor and mentoring system, and frequent behavioral health teaching and support. In addition, each resident is encouraged to set up appointments with a primary care physician and the program helps interested residents adjust their schedules to access individual counseling. We, your advisors and other faculty collaborate to assist each resident's professional and personal growth and development; together we commit to help each resident's journey to become well-rounded, happy and healthy family doctors.

Global Health