Let me extend a hearty welcome to you who are reading this message. We believe that the Kettering Health Network Main Campus will provide you with an environment designed to support your academic growth by maintaining a culture that is compassionate, adaptive, and inclusive. We provide you with robust educational content and opportunities including clinically challenging rotations.

While we are recipients of numerous national awards for excellence in patient care and working environment including U.S. News and World Report Best Hospitals list, this is not what makes us special. At our core is a simple statement: NURTURING ACADEMIC EXELLENCE: YOUR FUTURE IN MIND. This has been represented in the triangle diagram attached to this welcome.

Faith-Based

Driving our culture is our faith-based foundation. That is our bedrock which informs how we treat everyone, how we listen, how we speak, how we hope, how we plan, how we support our residents, how we encourage whole-person care through praying with our patients and being willing to engage them in the important questions of life, and how we engage our community, giving us motivation for addressing health care disparities and social determinants of health. As it relates to actual training, every resident is highly valued and highly respected. We recognize that each resident has their own learning style and pace and we adapt our training to accommodate all of these needs. We do so with patience and faith in the ability of every resident. We know that each resident can be a tremendous success and we commit ourselves to their future.

Nurturing

We believe that people thrive when they are supported as individuals, capitalizing on the strengths and abilities that make each resident unique. Every faculty member is committed to answering every question in a kind, empathetic, and nonthreatening way. As program director my office door is always open and if any resident has a concern, just needs to talk, or needs support they are welcome at any time. Even if I am traveling anywhere in the world residents can always reach me on my cell phone. I will always answer regardless of the time zone difference. The entire organization is committed to a humble, friendly and inclusive environment from the housekeepers to the President of Kettering Health Network.

Academic Excellence

We are very proud of the academic successes of our program. On the American Board of internal medicine certifying examination our program has a 3-year rolling average of 97% pass, rate at a time when the rolling national average is 90%. Many things have been used to achieve this incredible success including a great emphasis on using the ACP In-training examination as incentive to create great study habits. Our residents have really leaned into this method and as PGY-1, 2, or 3 they are scoring as high as the 90th percentile as a group nationally.

Our educational philosophy is to observe and identify resident abilities and learning styles and as such have put in place "The Kettering Rescue Crew". This is a group of talented educators and clinicians who come alongside a struggling resident identifying their learning style and providing robust educational material through both reading and testing to assure the success of every single resident. Other strategies put in place include:

Extended noon conference Monday thru Thursdays for 1 1/2 hours each session. These sessions are varied including subspecialty lectures for 50 minutes, morning report presented by residents and discussed with faculty, journal club and M&M conference.
Comprehensive board review conducted by an Associate Program Director or chief resident
Significant financial support to allow every second-year resident to attend a week-long update in IM - such as a Harvard update
Significant financial support to allow every third-year resident to attend a formal off-site board review such as Mayo Clinic board review course
Johns Hopkins ambulatory curriculum
We provide MKSAP for all residents PGY1-PGY3 & UWorld for all PGY3's

We demonstrate this excellence in our patient care, caring for the least of the least including those who make health choices that could destroy themselves. We solidify our academic success experientially by the kind of cases we see and that our residents take care of. We assure not just the bread and butter of medicine but the rare and complex diseases.

On inpatient services we provide care through patient-centered bedside rounds which allows patients and their families to participate in the care plan. The disease mix is outstanding with tremendous pathology representing the breadth and depth of Internal Medicine. Additionally, pharmacists and other healthcare providers round with our physician teams in interdisciplinary rounds providing real time feedback to patients and physicians alike on issues such as drug-drug interactions or cost of medications, discharge planning, etc. We utilize a "teach-back" method assuring understanding of our clinical discussions by patients and families.

In the ambulatory clinic we have a Firm system coupled with a block schedule which minimizes conflicts between inpatient and outpatient responsibilities. The Firms allow 6 residents plus attendings to share continuity responsibilities for a set block of patients.

At the Kettering Medical Center Internal Medicine Residency, we aim to produce competence in the critical activities that constitute the core of the specialty of Internal Medicine - all the elements that society and experts consider to belong to the profession.

Your Future in Mind

We understand that Internal Medicine has changed, and that the majority of our residents no longer choose primary care but sub-specialties, hence the need for opportunities to assure fellowship placement, via scholarship, and community engagement has increased. Additionally, we provide strong mentorship opportunities. We have a research coordinator, sub-specialty physician coordinators, and an overall clinician research director.

The research director chairs the faculty research group consisting of representatives from every subspecialty, a representative from the IRB and Library. This group is tasked with facilitating robust research, publications and presentations. There is a web-based reservoir of all work being done giving residents easy access to faculty and projects.

50-90% of our residents seek subspecialty training, so we have 3 competitive fellowships- Cardiology, Interventional Cardiology and Hematology-Oncology. Placement rates of our residents is quite successful including top tier programs such as The Cleveland Clinic, Baylor, Vanderbilt, Emory, University of Virginia, and University of Wisconsin etc.

Accreditation

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education has acknowledged our reputation for excellence in residency training and our commitment to education and has given us the longest accreditation cycle possible.

Kettering truly is a special place to train and we hope to have the privilege of training you as well.

Warm Regards,
Lyndi Schwartz, MD, FACP

Program Director Internal Medicine Residency
Kettering Medical Center
Vice-Chair, Department of Medicine
Wright State University Boonshoft SOM
Associate Clinical Professor
Wright State University Boonshoft SOM
Assistant Clinical Professor
Loma Linda University SOM
e-mail:
Phone: 937-395-8693

Contact:

Jenny Hubbs, C-TAGME
Residency Administrator
Internal Medicine Residency Program

(937) 395-8997