Edgefield Family Medicine

[mthreadgillmd]

a great site to do family medicine. if you are like me and were on the fringe on whether to do family or not, these doctors make a very strong case. this was my favorite rotation by far even with a 45 minute drive one-way everyday.
dr. nicholson is old school and the doctor who is in charge of your grade. he likes to see you take some initiative in treating patients. if a patient needs a CBG or needs their lipids checked, get that ball rolling. he likes to see you interested, and he likes to tell you stories of which he has several having been one of the only doctors in edgefield co. for the last 40 years. these stories are fun and worthwhile to listen to.
dr. rainsford is an amazing doctor. he is the kind of doctor that i would strive to be from his strength as a clinician and teacher to the respect and love his patients have for him. he is one of the best all around doctors i have worked with. work with him as much as possible.
dr. massey, dr. leaphart, and dr. gordineer are all great physicians and teachers as well. apparently, all of these guys (and girls) in the practice graduated AOA - woo woo.
the nurses and office staff are very friendly and are fun to get to know. take time to talk to them.
perhaps the biggest surprise that i found was about family medicine itself as a practice. these doctors are all very competent and dispelled all the stereotypes about family docs. these guys can take care of their patients as well as any of the attendings i worked with on medicine. they are all very sharp.

[jk]

Edgefield is a great site to do the family rotation.
Typical day:
7:15 - rounds in hospital - avg 5-10 in-pts, don't need to pre-round
8:30 - clinic w/ lunch between 12-1:30
5:00 - rounds in hospital
They usually send you home by 6:30 at the latest

Most of the physicians at Edgefield are AOA and great teachers. I saw a fair share of DM/HTN/hyperlipidemia and "sinusitis". There are always couple interesting pts each day.
-Dr. Nicholson is the one in charge of your grade. He is old school and will sometimes ask you what you want to do in front of the pt. I have said "I don't know" couple times and he didn't get mad. But I think he just wants you to think and try your best. He likes you to do more than taking care of the chief complaint and find out what else you can do for the pt for that visit - screening: colonoscopy, mammogram, lipids, A1C, flu shot. He does a lot of small procedures. Ask and he will let you do them. Get him to tell stories about his experiences and Edgefield. He is retiring at the end of 2008.
-Dr. Rainsford is a genius. He knows a lot. He likes you to read up on topics that you see in practice. He is very thorough w/ pts. Ask him questions and he will tell you everything he knows about the topic - I was lost more than couple times.
-Dr. Massey is awesome. She explains things very well. I asked her for advice about picking a specialty b/c she just finished her residency couple yrs ago.
-Dr. Leaphart had a baby the 2nd wk I was there - so I only worked w/ her once.
Talk to the nurses in the clinic and in the hospital. They are all very friendly and extremely helpful. The in-house "exam" is given the 3rd and 6th Tuesdays. They are not really graded; Dr. Nicholson just looks at it to gage how much you know. Home visit is really easy in Edgefield. Home-health nurse will drive you to one of the pts she visits, instead you picking out a pt and going yourself like other sites.

It takes about 35-40 minutes to drive to Edgefield passing by the mansions of Irish travellers on 25. So you are probably getting up before everybody else doing family, but I think the experience is worth the drive.

Food:
Hospital cafeteria is free to med students. The common area in the clinic has all sorts of different snacks for you to eat and get fat. Ice cream in the freezer! The only thing that is not free are the drinks- vending machine in the common area in clinic: 25 cents for a can of soda.

Call:
I worked in the ER during call, but the ER doc usually sent me to my room (11 at the latest) and told me they will only call me when something exciting happens. So you usually get to sleep thru the night. When you are on call, tell the kitchen staff and they will bring you a tray for dinner and breakfast the next day. Make sure to remind them during evening rounds b/c they tend to forget.

I would love to do a sub-I at Edgefield next yr, if my advisor agrees.