The IMTS is an Internal Medicine ward service
comprised of four teams in a traditional every-fourth-night call
schedule. The teams are staffed by full time and voluntary faculty,
senior Internal Medicine residents and IM/TY interns. Teams also include
medical students, Physician Assistant students and in-house Pharmacy
residents. Members of the Internal Medicine staff voluntarily admit
patients to the on-call team, providing a wide spectrum of pathology and
patient demography.
Unlike many university programs, there are no
competing ward services, such as Cardiology or Nephrology, to limit
access to interesting patients. Likewise, since there is no Critical
Care team, patients admitted to the ICUs (20% of total admissions) are
followed by the teams longitudinally. One half of the admissions are
from private staff, who have agreed to work with the teams under a set
of guidelines designed to assure appropriate staff supervision and
resident autonomy. The other half of the patients are “house cases” and
are admitted to the team under the supervision of the team's teaching
attending. Our daily morning report is usually attended by at least two
faculty members and all IMTS housestaff. It includes a number of
specialty conferences, including a monthly emergency medicine
conference, ambulatory care conference, and pharmacy conference. Also,
invited "consultants", including specialists and visiting professors
often attend.
Internal Medicine Teaching Service (IMTS)