Guthrie - Family Medicine

RESIDENCY

Message from Dr. James Della Valle, Family Medicine Residency Program Director

James A. Della Valle, MD, MBA
Director of Family Medicine Residency Program

Welcome to Guthrie Family Medicine!

Thank you for your interest in our Family Medicine Residency Program. It is my personal goal to assist you in obtaining the best education possible during your years at the Guthrie Clinic in Sayre, Pennsylvania.

There are many reasons why you would want to do your residency at Guthrie. The Guthrie Clinic is adjacent to the Robert Packer Hospital, a tertiary care center located in rural Northeastern Pennsylvania. Both the Clinic and the hospital have a longstanding reputation for excellence in both patient care and medical education. This assures that you will participate in the care of patients with both usual and unusual conditions in an atmosphere of academic excellence. The program enjoys unconditional support from the administration and medical staff of the Guthrie Clinic. At a time when Family Medicine residencies are closing, our program is expanding. This year we will offer six first year positions. Over the next two years we will have eighteen residents in our program. Each resident spends one month during their second year at the Golisano Children’s Hospital in Rochester, New York to increase their knowledge of Pediatrics. A fully equipped simulation laboratory is utilized weekly by our residents and faculty to improve their ability to perform and teach various medical and surgical procedures. A diagnostic Ultrasound curriculum will soon be introduced to permit our residents to improve their patient care by having the knowledge and skill to use this mode of imaging in their practices. A Family Medicine inpatient service supervised by Family Medicine Faculty physicians serves as the basic educational experience for the care of hospitalized patients. Inpatient medical specialty and subspecialty rotations are available to compliment the inpatient experience. The Guthrie Obstetrics rotation is an unopposed experience for our residents. Electives offer the resident an opportunity to have an area of concentrated study. The foundation of our educational and patient care experiences is the Family Medicine Center. Our practice is growing and exceeds 20,000 visits per year. Obstetrics is part of our practice with 6 of our faculty members actively involved in the practice of Obstetrics. Three of our faculty are ALSO instructors, one is a regional ALSO Faculty member. Two of our faculty members completed an Obstetrics and Gynecology residency program prior to coming to the United States. Four of our physicians have completed a Family Medicine Faculty Development Fellowship. Our director of Behavioral Medicine is nationally recognized for his scholarly activities with respect to the Balint Program. Conferences occur twice per day with a four hour didactic session every Thursday afternoon. There are two Grand rounds programs every week, one for Medicine and one for Surgery. A core curriculum lecture series has been developed with the Internal Medicine Residency at Guthrie. These lectures are provided every Tuesday and Wednesday at noon. The academic atmosphere of our campus will be further enhanced by a Cardiology Fellowship and an Emergency Medicine Residency. Both of these programs will be in operation by 2011. Guthrie is a very exciting place to learn and to practice Medicine in 2010!

Our goal in Family Medicine is to graduate personal physicians who will serve the people of rural Pennsylvania and New York and others who are underserved. They will have the knowledge and the skill to consistently care for 95% of the patients 95% of the time. The care of the patient is the center of all our professional and educational activities. The good of the patient is our reason for existence.

The Family Medicine Residency at the Guthrie Clinic/ Robert Packer Hospital is dynamic, innovative and expanding. It is my intention that it will be recognized as the premier Family Medicine Residency in the United States with an emphasis on Rural Family Medicine and the care of the underserved. If you are passionate about becoming the best physician that you can be and you are dedicated to our profession and our specialty, apply to our program. I look forward to meeting you.

James A. Della Valle, MD, MBA
Program Director

Family Medicine Residency
1st Level, Guthrie Clinic, Guthrie Square
Sayre, PA 18840-1699
Phone: 570-887-3292
Fax: 570-887-2807
Email: fampract@ghs.org