Carle Foundation Hospital
http://www.carle.com

A.  INTRODUCTION

Welcome to Carle.  Carle's major missions include education and research as well as patient care.  Goals are excellence in each.  Carle Foundation Hospital is a completely modern, 283-bed, acute care hospital that makes up one facet of the Carle medical complex.  Adjacent to Carle Hospital is Carle Clinic Association, the l4th largest multispecialty group practice in the country.  The Carle Arbours provides an extended care service and Carle Home Care is active in the Central Illinois area as well.

Carle provides health care services to an area of approximately 2.3 million persons in 42 counties.  A network of nearly 2,000 physicians refer their patients to Carle and more than 60 percent of Carle's patients come from outside Champaign County.

As a regional referral center, Carle has a sophisticated, well-equipped medical facility with up-to-date laboratory and technical supports as well as "state of the art" diagnostic equipment.  This includes having available on a daily basis a cardiac catheterization lab, magnetic resonance imaging, stress testing, thallium scanning, two-dimensional echocardiography, fiberoptic endoscopy, electromyography and other techniques essential to the practice of internal medicine and its subspecialties.

The Clinical Education Center at the hospital has the responsibility for overseeing the educational experience of UICOM-U/C medical students, residents, and attending physicians.  The hospital is an accredited sponsor of continuing medical education and through the Department of Medical Education offers organized educational activities from formal lectures to informal conferences given by Carle's own staff of board certified specialists as well as by visiting authorities of national and international stature.  This department also coordinates a Carle medical speaker's bureau offered to medical societies and health institutions throughout Illinois and Indiana.

Enhancing this educational atmosphere is the highly sophisticated hospital library with 10,000 books and more than 250 medical, nursing, and hospital administration journals.  The library has access to the University of Illinois library with eight million volumes, the third largest in the country and through MEDLINE is connected with the National Library of Medicine.

As an adjunct to the education emphasis at Carle, the hospital has a Department of Research that is currently conducting more than 20 research projects under the supervision of various Carle physicians.  Projects range from the use of hypnosis for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy to a study of black bears and their hibernation habits and the implications for human nutrition.

B.  ORIENTATION:  FIRST DAY OF ROTATION

8:00      Students meet with the clerkship director in the Carle Forum for introduction to the goals and expectations of the clerkship as well as how it is conducted at the Carle Hospital site.

9:30     Students meet with the Chief Resident

Mail

Mail will be placed in the file folders located in the Carle CEC office.

Meals

Medical students and residents wearing their photo IDs will receive an employee discount for meals purchased in the hospital cafeteria.  Students must wear their photo IDs to receive this discount.

Photo IDs

While on rotation at Carle Hospital, Carle photo IDs must be worn.  Students can get the IDs on the 4th Floor of the North Tower.

Holidays

No lectures will be scheduled on holidays.  Students and residents are expected to handle patient care responsibilities on holidays just as they would on a Sunday; that is, a student or resident assigned to call duty is expected to take it unless alternate arrangements are made with the Chief Medical Resident.  Students and residents not on-call are responsible for following up on their patients or assuring that another team member will do so.  In all cases, continuity of care must be respected.

C.  REQUIRED PROCEDURES

Tthe Internal Medicine Clerkship required completion of five procedures during your rotation: 1. EKG lead placement 2. Arterial Blood Gas instruction 3. Observe a pulmonary function test 4. Lumbar puncture on a model, and 5. IV starts. These procedures will be performed under supervision. Some of the required procedures will be completed while at the Danville Veterans Administration Hospital.

Successful completion of each of these components will be indicated by the signature of the appropriate person in your student log.  Any problems with these assignments should be discussed with the chief resident.  Other required procedures from the mandatory graduation list may also be accomplished during this rotation.

D.  THE MEDICINE TEACHING SERVICE

The teaching service is staffed by senior residents who are responsible for all day-to-day activities on the service.  Working with and under the senior residents are two to four junior medical residents and one to two medical students.  It is important for good patient care that interactions among these team members be exemplary.  You are assigned to a patient care team.  Your immediate supervisors include a junior resident, the senior resident, the chief resident, and the teaching service attending physician.

Consultations and Conferences.  When a patient under your care is presented to a medical conference, your attendance is required.  When your patient is to be presented, you may be asked to present the case.  Therefore, you should review this ahead of time with your attending physician or resident.

On Call Duty.  On call duty is every fourth night in the hospital.  Current call hours are 4-7 p.m., Monday-Friday. It is mandatory to take call duty.  The chief resident compiles and distributes the on call schedule.  You should receive a copy of this schedule in the first week of your rotation.

If you are called to evaluate a new patient, review your completed initial work up with the resident or the attending covering the service during the resident's absence.

You will be called for problems arising with your assigned patients as well as other patients on the teaching service.  This responsibility should encourage you to familiarize yourself with the problems and plans being formulated for all patients on the teaching service.

Cardiac Arrests.  When you are on call, go to these and assist as you are able.  If asked to leave, do so without complaint.  The senior medical person runs a code.

Conferences.  Your attendance at conferences is required unless urgent patient care responsibility precludes.  If in doubt about whether you should leave a patient for a conference, consult with the junior resident on the case.  When time allows, other periodic lectures and conferences should also be attended.

Clinics.  You will be assigned an outpatient clinic.  Attendance and participation is required.

E.  LIBRARY SERVICES

Collections and services do vary so scheduling an orientation early in one's rotation at each institution is suggested.

Carle Foundation Library