Residency Program
Our Family Medicine residency program accepts eight new doctors each year for the rigorous, three year training. Under the supervision of our physicians and other teaching faculty, the residents learn the full scope of family medicine from delivering babies to performing minor surgery to caring for patients of all ages in the medical office and in the hospital.
The residency program attracts an excellent group of doctors from some of the nation’s best medical schools. Our graduates have demonstrated a 100% pass rate on the Board Certification exam given by the American Academy of Family Physicians and most of them choose to practice locally, working as family doctors in the South Bay.
So what does this mean to you as a patient (or potential patient) of Schwartz Clinic?
The affiliation with the residency program makes our physicians better doctors and, once in a while, might involve a medical student or resident in your office visit. As teachers, our faculty physicians need to keep current with up-to-date medical practices, new research and new technologies. Our commitment to teaching state-of-the-art medicine means our patients get state-of-the-art medicine. The word “doctor” means “teacher” in Latin. The same teaching skills we develop with the Family Medicine residents help us teach our patients about their medical conditions and about staying healthy.
While the Family Medicine residents and medical students usually see patients in the medical office across the hall from ours, sometimes they work alongside our physicians at Schwartz Clinic. In this case, you may see a resident either before or during your visit with your doctor. The residents and students will always identify themselves. You will never see a resident instead of your doctor; rather, you would see them in addition to your doctor. While we always offer our patients the option to decline working with students and residents, most tell us they enjoy having the learners participate in their medical care. Without a full schedule of their own patients, the students and residents often have more time to spend with a patient. They can ask more detailed questions and explain medical problems and treatments at length. Also, many of our patients enjoy participating in the teaching process that goes on when their doctor and the resident are together in the exam room with them. As one of our patients said recently, “It’s like getting two doctors for the price of one!”