The mission of the UPMC Horizon Family Medicine Residency Program is to train residents in a small-town and rural environment to become exceptional Family Medicine Physicians and to meet the needs of the communities of Mercer and Lawrence Counties while customizing the residency experience for each resident to meet their respective career goals. UPMC Horizon provides quality, patient-centered care across all ages and in any clinical setting. Our program features direct, one-on-one interaction with specialists as well as a strong team of experienced, passionate family medicine faculty. Patient care and resident education are equal partners in the mission of the residency.
UPMC Horizon Family Medicine Residency Program’s Family Health Center (FHC) is Shenango Valley Family Medicine (SVFM). The FHC, located adjacent to the hospital, allows the residents and faculty to better meet the needs of the local community by improving access to primary care and providing a comprehensive medical home.
The FHC provides comprehensive medical care to patients of all ages by a team of health providers: Family Medicine Physicians, Clinical Pharmacist, Medical Assistants, Nurses, Care Managers and Behavioral Health provider. The facility offers 13 exam rooms, procedure rooms, triage space, workstations, consultation rooms, faculty offices and a conference room for weekly didactics.
Our Family Medicine Residency program accepts six residents per year and is rooted in a strong community-oriented mission. Located in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, we are ideally situated just 67 miles southeast of Cleveland, OH, 60 miles north of Pittsburgh, PA, and 89 miles south of Erie, PA—offering access to both rural and urban healthcare experiences.
Graduates of our program go on to serve diverse communities across Western Pennsylvania and throughout the United States. They practice in various settings, including outpatient primary care, hospital medicine, emergency departments, and urgent care—making a meaningful impact wherever they go.
The first year provides incoming residents with solid introduction to the breadth and diversity of family medicine. It includes a series of inpatient rotations at UPMC Horizon (internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics, and emergency medicine), one month of inpatient pediatrics at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.
Call during the intern year is dependent upon the rotation. On the inpatient medicine rotation, interns take in-house call during the daytime every other weekend. The rest of the intern class alternates for the other weekends. Weekend call outside of the inpatient rotation is 1 in 6 weekends. During the OB month, interns may take call up to once a week. Call can be assigned during inpatient pediatrics at times.
Residents also spend one half-day session, per week, in the Family Medicine Center.
The second and third-year curriculum offers a broader array of experiences, along with the required rotations by the ACGME, in order to achieve a greater educational experience in the depths of family medicine.
Second year residents spend 3 half-day sessions, on average, per week in the office and third year residents spend 3-4 half-day sessions, depending upon the rotation.
Additional continuity experiences in the second and third year include:
Night float rotations are utilized to cover the inpatient services in the hospital. These occur during the PGY-2 and PGY-3 years. All night float rotations adhere to all duty hour requirements of the ACGME.
We are able to utilize the full benefits of our large tertiary-care system to access electives in many fields with appropriate advance planning. We strongly believe in the benefits of customizing your residency experience to achieve your future practice goals.
The continuity training experience, within the continuity of care family practice clinic, provides the resident with a training environment equivalent to that of a private practice.
The continuity training experience will develop those skills and experiences necessary to give the resident the competence and confidence to provide exceptional patient care.
The goals of the continuity training experience are to provide:
Residents are often recruited to the local community to continue the compassionate and comprehensive care they have been taught.
Audition rotations are available for students currently in an Osteopathic or AAMC accredited medical school. Options include:
Applications to set up an audition or shadowing experience will be accepted starting March 1st. Please contact the Family Medicine Residency Coordinator at UPMC Horizon via email at foltzaa@upmc.edu with your completed form and updated CV.
In the meantime, please complete the paperwork on the Medical Student Orientation page.
Shadow opportunities are available for medical students, a max of three (3) days is approved at UPMC Horizon. If you wish to shadow, please complete the paperwork on the Job Shadow page and email to foltzaa@upmc.edu.
All applicants must apply through ERAS® (the Electronic Residency Application Service. Only these applications will be reviewed. No paper applications are accepted. Applications are accepted from the opening of ERAS September 15th until December 20th. We sponsor J1 and H1B visas.
Criteria for selection for an interview:
The final selection is made by the Program Director and Faculty after review of the entire application. We receive greater than 150 applications per residency slot. Therefore, we cannot respond to inquiries regarding your application status. All applications are reviewed.
If you are selected to interview with our program, you will receive an invitation via Thalamus from our Recruitment Coordinator.
Learn more about UPMC Horizon's Family Medicine Residency faculty.
6:45 a.m. - 7:00 a.m. – Sign-out from the night PA or night resident, determine which cell phones you will use, communicating with nursing main desk about attending for the day, resident caring for each patient, and which cell phone you can be reached at.
7:00 a.m. - 8:00 a.m. – Pre-charting and reviewing imaging, morning labs and overnight nursing notes.
8:00 a.m. - 9:15 a.m. – Go visit each patient that is under your care in the hospital (Interns are limited to 5 patients initially).
8:30 a.m. one resident attends the Discharge Planning meeting
9:15 a.m. - 11:15 a.m. – Rounds with attending and PharmD; discuss each patient and your plan for them. Your plan is then critiqued, this allows for excellent hands-on learning directly from both the attending physician and PharmD. (On weekends table rounds may occur instead of full-rounds).
11:15 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. – Work on notes, pending labs, discussions with Social Work and Case manager, etc.
12:15 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. – Lunch, spending money for the cafeteria is provided by UPMC and we utilize this often for lunch as there are multiple options with each day!
1:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. – Follow up on labs and imaging ordered for the day, coordinating with social work, admissions, answering nursing calls, responding to codes if they occur.
6:00 pm - 6:45 p.m. – Wrap up service and start organizing sign out. Make sure every patient has morning labs ordered.
6:45 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. – Sign out to night team. This includes recapping acute events throughout the day, going over any pending orders or labs, and giving more detailed report on acutely ill patients.
*On Wednesdays afternoon, if no admissions and patients’ orders for the day placed, Senior resident will attend Didactics session. PGY1 Resident attends
** Once a week, one resident has clinic hours from 1-5pm (On that day, they are expected to complete all orders and notes from their patients by noon and sign out to other resident).
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