File #: 260-35-21-124

Sponsor: New York Medical College

Overview

Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers Queens department of orthopaedics aims to present a highly organized and closely supervised program to residents over a five-year period. The guiding teaching methodology is the integration and correlation of didactic subject matter into the daily delivery of orthopaedic healthcare to patients. We believe the SVCMC faculty should be the primary teachers for our residents. The program's goal is to produce graduates who have the cognitive, psychomotor, and affective skills to enter directly into the practice of general orthopaedics or to enter a quality fellowship.

Patient Volume and Variety:
The volume and variety of clinical problems presenting to the resident staff are more than adequate. Pediatric orthopaedic disorders are seen in the neonatal nursery; in the Tuesday pediatric orthopaedic clinic; as inpatient consultations; during a three-month pediatric orthopaedic rotation at Orthopaedic Institute; in the emergency departments; and in the general orthopaedic ambulatory clinics. Adolescent problems are managed in the general clinics and the Saturday morning program of public high school football game coverage. This includes pre-season and routine physical examinations, on-site coverage of games, and follow-up of injuries in the private physician's offices and the general clinics.

There is an abundance of arthroscopic operative experience in the treatment of injuries and degenerative disorders of the middle aged population. The orthopaedic problems of the geriatric population are well defined in the Queens hospitals. The Borough of Queens has a large proportion of senior citizens, with many orthopaedic patients being above 80 years of age. A Level I Trauma Center provides multi-system injured patients and complex musculoskeletal injuries. A large amount of hand trauma is managed by the orthopaedic residents because there is no competing general surgery, hand or plastic surgery service. All residents attend the orthotics and prosthetics course at New York University.

Continuity of Care:
A unique aspect of our program is that residents have long-term follow-up of all operative and nonoperative patients. Because of the small number of residents and the arrangement of the clinic schedule, all residents on each rotation attend every outpatient clinic session. This means that the patients who are treated in the emergency department are usually managed by the same resident in follow-up. Those patients who are being followed for a degenerative disease for a number of years continue to see the same resident staff with whom they are familiar. Additionally residents have assignments in the private offices of the full-time orthopaedic faculty.

Chairman: John R Denton, M.D.