Four hospitals are integrated into the Internal Medicine Residency Program. In addition to the hospital-based teaching facilities, there are ambulatory care facilities in Johnson City and Kingsport that are provided by ETSU Health, community providers, and regional public health clinics. The Ballad medical complexes act as regional and tertiary referral centers for Northeast Tennessee and adjacent areas of Virginia, North Carolina and Kentucky. The population is in excess of one million within a 50-mile radius and four million within a 100-150-mile radius of Johnson City.
Johnson City Medical Center (JCMC)
The Johnson City Medical Center, in Johnson City, TN is a 500-bed facility opened
in 1980. The facility is located next to the Veterans Affairs Medical Center and medical
college campus, permitting access to departmental research facilities and the medical
school library. All of the rooms are private and self-contained, with charts, medications,
and other patient needs located next to the rooms for convenience of care. Support
services are state-of-the-art. The hospital has a very active ICU, a cardiac catheterization
laboratory and an active cardiac surgery program. The geographically segregated Center
for Women's Health and The Children's Hospital provide state-of-the-art services to
women and children. Magnetic resonance imaging and a cancer treatment center are recent
additions to the services provided by the hospital. Patients are referred primarily
from Washington, Carter, and Unicoi counties in upper east Tennessee. The internal
medicine residency service provides care for all of the hospitalized patients of the
full-time faculty and for the ambulatory patients of the university's general internists.
The university service is limited to a maximum of 30 inpatients, providing a comfortable
resident-patient ratio. The patient population is an excellent one, encompassing all
ages and disease processes. The pace of the service is designed to provide ample study
time for the residents. The increasing importance of state-of-the-art ambulatory evaluation
of patients is emphasized during this rotation.
James H. Quillen Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC)
The James H. Quillen Veterans Affairs Medical Center is a large facility consisting
of 57 buildings located on 220 acres immediately adjacent to the university campus
and the Johnson City Medical Center. The College of Medicine is located on the VAMC
grounds. In addition to the main 446-bed acute care hospital, there is an 85-bed intermediate
care unit, and a 580-bed nursing care unit, and a 550-bed domiciliary. A newly opened
clinical support facility provides updated outpatient, laboratory and subspecialty
facilities for the hospital. As with all of the university hospitals, the VAMC provides
non physician personnel for all blood drawing (including blood cultures and arterial
blood gases), intravenous therapy, respiratory therapy, and patient transport services.
The resident internal medicine service includes one general internal medicine team
and other subspecialty team rotations. In addition, there is an intensive care unit,
a coronary care unit, a respiratory intensive care unit, and a coronary care step-down
unit. The geriatric service consists of the 85-bed intermediate care unit and the
58-bed nursing home care unit.
Holston Valley Medical Center (HVMC)
The Holston Valley Hospital and Medical Center in Kingsport TN has permanent ETSU
Internal Medicine faculty as full-time attending physicians that practice both ambulatory
and hospitalist medicine. The inpatient service admit to the hospital from private
practice as well as unattached patients. Residents are involved in both outpatient
and inpatient care of their patients. They also receive elective experience and emergency
room rotations. During ward rotations, in addition to caring for their patients,
the attending physicians have responsibility for teaching and supervision of ward
residents. At this site, residents experience the dynamics of group practice.
Bristol Regional Medical Center (BRMC)
The Bristol Regional Medical Center in Bristol, TN gives residents experience working
in a smaller community facility. The BRMC offers an ICU rotation with practicing,
board certified critical care specialists and ETSU pulmonary-critical care fellows
which broadens the resident’s experience with critically ill patients.
Having rotations at the major teaching institution (JCMC) and the three other participating institutions in upper East Tennessee gives our residents exposure to an extensive interstate regional population which encompasses the entire socio economic spectrum of patients. This combined with the ambulatory experience truly prepares our residents for independent practice in all aspects of Internal Medicine.