Frequently Asked Questions

There are eight positions available, including one combined Family and one Preventative Medicine position.

There are currently 24 residents and two Preventative Medicine fellows.

Applicants are selected on a wide variety of criteria, including medical school performance, letters of recommendation and USMLE scores (the cut-off score for both Step one and Step two is 210).

There are several clinical training sites, including University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, University Hospitals MacDonalds Women's Hospital, Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center, University Hospitals Geauga Medical Center and several ambulatory sites in the greater Cleveland area. Given the diverse locations of rotations it is highly recommended that residents have a car.

During PGY1 you are solely at UH Cleveland Medical Center, spending two blocks at UH Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital and 1.5 blocks at UH MacDonald Women's Hospital. During PGY2 and PGY3 years you have increasing amounts of continuity clinic and spend rotations in adult and pediatric outpatient specialty clinics throughout the greater Cleveland area.

All residents will graduate with at least 30 non-continuity deliveries and 10 continuity deliveries. Deliveries are overseen by the obstetric chief residents and attendings, as well as with midwives. There currently are not any family medicine attendings who supervise deliveries.

For those with interest there are opportunities to be secondary assist in deliveries, especially for your continuity patients. Those who wish to be proficient in cesarean deliveries will need to complete a separate fellowship.

Residents are trained in Pap Tests, Wet Preps, IUD insertion and removal and Nexplanon insertion and removal. For those with interest there is an opportunity for colposcopy training.

Most residents transition to start their career as family physicians by joining a hospital system, a group practice or a Federally-Qualified Health Center with practice setting ranging from outpatient to inpatient clinical settings.

Depending on their interests, our graduates have successfully joined a wide variety of fellowships, such as preventive medicine, geriatrics, sleep medicine, sports medicine and women's health fellowships.

The academic year consists of a total of 13 four-week blocks.

There is a wide variety of patients on the inpatient service, including patients with COPD exacerbations, cardiac complaints including ACS, CHF exacerbations and GI bleeds. We have healthy newborn patients and postpartum mothers.

There are one to two junior or senior residents, two to three interns and one-night resident. Often the team has acting interns, PharmD students and rotating international students.

The main half-day didactics are scheduled every Wednesday, protected-time for PGY2s and PGY3s. Additionally, Women's Health Conference on Thursdays morning as well as Morning Report on Fridays. During the internship (PGY1), you have the privilege to attend the educational activities of the service you are rotating on (internal medicine, pediatrics and OB/GYN). At the same time, you also have Wednesday lunch hour protected-time for focused education, pharmacy seminars, support group and Balint.

Core Block is professional development time, as well as an opportunity to work on quality improvement (QI) initiatives and scholarly activities.

There are many options for elective time, depending upon your personal interests and long-term career goals. Residents have spent time with medicine and pediatric specialty services, emergency care services, including urgent care, women health and sports medicine electives.

You are able to do electives away from UH, as long as it does not interfere with your continuity clinic.

Yes, there are no pre-approved electives, but with interest can be accomplished. There are opportunities in the Global Health Track (GHT).

The program is currently on HOLD.

Yes. Every year each resident is allotted educational funds to defray the cost of needed training materials. For residents who are members of the Association of Residents and Fellows (ARF), Travel Awards are available for those who would like to attend family medicine conferences they are presenting at.

Residents must complete Step 3 by the end of PGY2. Excused time of two days is able to be taken during certain rotations, as long as it does not interfere with continuity clinic and other certain rotations. Request for time off approval must be granted.

Residents are responsible for the cost of Step 3. Residents are welcome to use their book money towards this expense.

Our ABFM pass rate is 100 percent for the past five consecutive years with program average scores higher than the national average.

We currently do not schedule residents on clinical duties beyond 16 hours at a time. However, other departments that we rotate with might schedule you for longer shifts (24- to 30-hour shift) as long as it doesn't violate Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) duty-hour rules.

Yes, junior and senior residents cover the night service. When there are three interns on the Family Medicine Service, you will rotate on night float. There is also a pediatric night call.

As a PGY1, you are granted a total of four days off each block. During your Core Block, you will have weekends off, but may need to use that time for projects.

You are allotted a total of four weeks of vacation every academic year. During PGY1, you are able to take two separate two-week vacations. During PGY2 and 3, you are able to take them in one or two separate week(s).

Some residents reside within walking distance to the hospital while others live 15-25 minutes away driving to work. Common neighborhoods are downtown Cleveland, University Circle, Cleveland Heights, Shaker Heights, Lyndhurst, Beachwood and Mayfield Heights.

Learn more on our Life in Cleveland section.

You are allotted on-call money every six-months based on your scheduled overnight clinical duties.

There is an active Association of Residents and Fellows (ARF) with many social events, including happy hour mixers, resident breakfasts and many seasonal events (e.g., Fall apple picking, holiday parties, etc.).