Internal Medicine Residency Training Program
Veterans Affairs Medical Center

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Veterans Affairs Medical Center

There are over 25 million veterans currently living in the United States.  The mission of the Veterans Healthcare System is to serve the needs of these veterans by providing primary care, specialized care, and related medical and social support services.  Whether it’s a 22 year old who just returned from enduring the hostilities in Iraq or an 88 year old veteran of World War II, the VA Medical Center's focus is to provide the necessary services for our nation’s veterans.   Over the last 15 years, the VA system nationwide has remade itself into a pillar of excellence, frequently outperforming the private sector in a number of standard performance measures.  Boasting the most advanced computerized patient record system (CPRS), the VA supports innovation, evidenced based care and is leading the way in improving hospital systems to ensure patient safety. 

The New York Campus of the VA New York Harbor Healthcare System (VA NYHHS) is one of three campuses of the integrated VA NYHHS.  The other campuses are the Brooklyn Campus and St. Albans.  "The Harbor" is part of the New York/New Jersey Veterans Integrated Service Network VISN #3 which is one of 23 VISN’s located throughout the country.  The Harbor provides care to 53,000 unique patients annually.  The New York Campus has inpatient floors devoted to acute medicine, surgery, acute psychiatry, neurology and rehabilitation Medicine.  It is also the VISN’s referral center for cardiac surgery, neurosurgery, urology and HIV/AIDS care.  The hospital has 171 operating beds.

On the inpatient wards, four medical teams cover an average of 60-70 patients.  The population of patients focuses on bread and butter medicine: coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, cirrhosis, COPD, and various malignancies.   Each of the four teams has two management attendings (VA faculty) who round daily in combined management and as teaching attendings.  Frequent multidisciplinary case conferences involving the full-time subspecialty and generalist faculty are the highlight of the curriculum at the VA.  The ICU experience is a mixed medical and coronary care unit.  Teams are made up of 3 senior residents and 4 interns and are supervised by both an intensivist and cardiologist.

The outpatient experience is similarly rewarding.  The primary care clinic cares for 17,000 active patients, generating over 45,000 visits/year.  Our full time faculty is made up of 22 internists who each take care of a panel of their own patients as well as supervise the residents' panels.  This collaborative arrangement ensures timely follow-up of all patient care needs.  A highlight of the outpatient experience is the easy access to the subspecialty faculty to discuss particularly interesting or difficult cases.  The ability to access the computer system from home allows our housestaff to follow-up their patients even while away from the VA.

Most importantly, the strength of VA is in the patient population.  The veterans are compliant, unique and, diverse groups who all have many stories to tell; all you have to do is ask.  The experience here offers house staff a new perspective on the country’s military history and gives you a chance to meet some real-life heroes who need our attention.