What are general internal medicine call nights like?
Ochsner Medical Center is a state-of-the-art hospital that serves as a tertiary referral center for the Gulf South. All internal medicine consultations from the emergency department are seen by an Internal Medicine hospitalist who serves as the “gatekeeper” for internal medicine. This method ensures that our residents are exposed to a variety of diagnoses on any given call night. At Ochsner, the patient mix is spectacular. Each internal medicine team is composed of one resident and two or three interns. On a call day, the team will begin accepting admissions around 2:30 p.m. The interns will remain in house, and the resident will be replaced by a night float resident at 9 p.m. On the post-call day, the interns leave the hospital no later than 1 p.m., while the resident handles all patient care duties.
