About Long Island College Hospital (LICH)

LICH

Long Island College Hospital (LICH) is a 500 bed teaching hospital located in the Brooklyn Heights/Cobble Hill section of Brooklyn. LICH is the primary teaching affiliate of the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center. It is also a member of Continuum Health Partners, a consortium of New York City hospitals including Beth Israel Medical Center, St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital and New York Eye and Ear Infirmary. Founded in 1858 as a medical school as well as a hospital, Long Island College Hospital has mad e exceptional contributions to U.S. medicine. In 1860, it became the first U.S. medical school to make bedside teaching a standard part of its medical curriculum, establishing an approach that was subsequently adopted around the country. LICH was one of the first U.S. institutions to introduce use of the stethoscope and general anesthesia. In 1930 Long Island College of Medicine was incorporated as a separate medical school with LICH as its hospital affiliate. In 1954 the College of Medicine became a part of the State University of New York (SUNY). LICH remains the primary teaching affiliate of SUNY. Long Island College Hospital offers independent and affiliated training programs for resident physicians in more than 20 medical specialties. 

Our Patients

Approximately 500,000 people of diverse racial, ethnic and religious backgrounds live in Long Island College Hospital’s service area. More than 22,000 patients are admitted annually with an average daily census of 160 patients on the medical service.

Facilities

Residents train in a clinically stimulating environment. State of the art technology includes CT and MRI scanning, interventional radiology capability, nuclear medicine, digital cardiac catheterization and cardiac electrophysiology labs, fully equipped intensive care and cardiac care/arrhythmia units. Recently the hospital has completed a 35 million-dollar renovation, which included most of the medical units.

Preliminary Medicine

Candidates who require one year of internal medicine training in preparation for anesthesiology, psychiatry, rehabilitation medicine, neurology, radiology, ophthalmology or other specialty training are fully integrated into the clinical and educational activities of the first year internal medicine training program.

Faculty

The teaching faculty comprises 30 full-time and 19 part-time physicians in general medicine and the medical subspecialties including:

A large voluntary faculty supplements the full-time internal medicine teaching faculty. In addition, medical residents interact regularly in the course of their clinical duties with other residents, subspecialty fellows and attendings from the non-medical specialties, including required rotations in Emergency Medicine and Neurology.

Clinical Experience

1. Inpatient Care:

Residents train in a clinically stimulating environment that provides diverse learning opportunities. Residents have the opportunity over their three years of training to develop the knowledge and skills to diagnose and treat a wide variety of conditions.  Incrementally, residents are expected to assume more responsibility and independence commensurate with their level of training.  The clinical rotations at each training level are summarized below:

PGY-1:

  • coronary care/arrhythmia unit
  • intensive care unit
  • respiratory care unit
  • geriatrics
  • night float
  • general medicine

PGY-2

  • coronary care/arrhythmia unit
  • intensive care unit
  • endocrine
  • emergency medicine
  • electives
  • ambulatory care block
  • general medicine

PGY-3

  • coronary care/arrhythmia unit
  • intensive care unit
  • respiratory care unit
  • geriatrics
  • medical consult service
  • ambulatory care block
  • electives
  • general medicine

2. Outpatient Care

Residents spend approximately 33% of their time in ambulatory settings over their three years of training.  It is here they learn the fundamentals of primary care internal medicine, preventive care, behavioral medicine and community-oriented medicine.  Residents provide continuity ambulatory care to a panel of patients accrued from hospital discharges and through scheduled new patient visits. PGY-1 residents spend ½ day twice a week in clinic; PGY-2 residents spend ½ day twice a week in clinic and one month of ambulatory block rotation; PGY-3 residents spend ½ day twice a week in clinic and two months of ambulatory block rotation. During ambulatory block rotations residents rotate through medical as well as non-medical specialty clinics including rehabilitation medicine, orthopedics, adolescent medicine, gynecology, otolaryngology and ophthalmology.

Teaching Activities and Educational Conferences

A didactic curriculum and small group sessions complement the clinical experience.  Residents are required to participate in the educational activities of the department including daily morning report, noontime conferences and bimonthly journal club and textbook review.  The noontime conferences include introductory lectures covering general and subspecialty medical topics, medical ethics, psychosocial issues in medicine, non-medical specialty topics, and monthly morbidity/mortality rounds and clinicopathologic conferences where residents have an opportunity to present cases and pertinent literature reviews to the assembled attendings, residents and medical students.  Weekly Grand Rounds feature guest lecturers covering a wide range of medical topics.

Research

Residents are expected to complete a research project prior to completing their training.  Residents may choose to participate in ongoing clinical research projects or may develop a project under the guidance of a faculty advisor.  Each year the research efforts of our residents are judged by a panel of the faculty and awards are presented at graduation.  The research efforts of our residents are frequently judged worthy of publication in peer-reviewed journals or presentation at national and international meetings.

Medical Student Teaching

Residents at all training levels are actively involved in the teaching of medical students.  Each year more than 100 3rd and 4th year medical students rotate through the Department of Internal Medicine from SUNY-Brooklyn, St. George’s Medical School and Ross Medical School.  These students are an essential part of the training environment and are fully integrated into the rounding teams on all the clinical units and on subspecialty electives.

Fellowships

LICH offers independent fellowships in gastroenterology and nephrology, and fellowships in cardiology affliated with Beth Israel Medical Center, in hematology/oncology and pulmonary medicine affiliated with SUNY Downstate Medical Center, and in infectious diseases affiliated with Maimonedes Medical Center in Brooklyn.

Evaluations

Supervising attending physicians evaluate residents monthly.  The residency evaluation committee of the Department of Medicine consisting of representative teaching attendings  and the Chief Resident reviews the overall performance of all residents quarterly.  Each resident then reviews the evaluation with the program director to assure  that the resident is progressing satisfactorily. If remedial help is necessary a plan is formulated to help the resident develop to his or her full potential.