Internal Medicine Clinic

Our Vision

We will provide easy access to the best high value, high quality and cost-effective care for all of our patients, partnering with them to enhance their health of mind, body and spirit. We are fully present to them and to one another, embracing this community as a family. In this way, we will inspire and train our residents to be the next generation of exceptional primary care physicians.

The Internal Medicine (IM) Clinic at SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital is an integral part of residency training, providing a heightened understanding of primary care and preventative health, relationships developed through continuity of care and professionalism.

The Internal Medicine (IM) Clinic serves as a medical home to some of St. Louis' most vulnerable patients, as two-thirds of the patient population are underinsured (Medicaid) or uninsured. The IM Clinic strives to reduce healthcare disparities in the community with compassion and comprehensive care for all patients. By serving the area's most vulnerable patients in the context of a true continuity teaching clinic for our Internal Medicine Residency Program, the IM Clinic exemplifies the Mission of SSM Health every day.

As of June 2020, the IM Clinic has been formally recognized as a Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). This recognition emphasizes the Internal Medicine Clinic’s ability to provide systematic, patient-centered, coordinated care that supports access, communication and patient involvement.

Benefits of training in the Internal Medicine (IM) Clinic:

• Enjoy the privilege of developing a trusting relationship with a diverse group of patients as part of an exceptional multidisciplinary team.
• With the 4+1 block schedule, each resident will have the opportunity to spend a week in the clinic every 5th week. It is during the IM Clinic week that the resident PCP will see his or her own patients for follow up visits, in addition to acute visits and cross coverage for other residents.
• Receive training in Primary Care under the direction of experienced clinician educators and a multidisciplinary support staff of exceptional and dedicated nurses, medical assistants, pharmacists and a pharmacist assistant who oversee a large program of patient assistance, a social worker, transportation leader, and administrative staff.
• Cultivate a team approach to individualized patient care. Each resident has a panel of patients with diverse backgrounds that he/she will acquire, build upon, follow throughout the three years of residency with the expectation of comprehensive, holistic, high value care with attention to overall health and wellness.
• Clinic responsibilities also include review of literature with didactic presentations and discussions, quality interventions, rapid improvement events, and preventative health maintenance.
• Serve as the primary care physician while training in the management of acute and chronic outpatient problems, transitions of care, preventative health education, high value care, on call responsibilities, documentation, coding, and communication in the ambulatory setting.
• Take an active role in the care of clinic patients and participate in walks with patients around the hospital, visit local food pantries and grocery stores to promote and enhance understanding of the vulnerable clinic population, show support and make visits to a homeless shelter, and participate in programs to enhance community involvement and health.
• Be involved, on an almost continuous basis, with quality improvement projects to improve care of clinic patients.

Subspecialty and Transitional Care Clinics

The Internal Medicine Clinic offers training in not only a longitudinal primary care experience but also allows residents to see their own patients across multiple disciplines while being supervised by ABIM certified sub-specialists.

The resident PCP communicates directly with the various subspecialty attending physicians to provide longitudinal subspecialty care in areas of Psychiatry, Pulmonary medicine, Gastroenterology, Infectious Disease including long term management of HIV and Ophthalmology.

The IM Clinic won the 2014 SSM Health Care Innovators Award for the subspecialty care provided for its indigent patients.

The IM Clinic also received recognition for its noteworthy success in the Transitional Care Clinic (TCC) due to a significant reduction in admissions to the hospital as well as for enhanced care and follow up of patients in the St. Louis community.

Residents have the opportunity to spend some time in the TCC, and time each month in the subspecialty clinics working alongside specialists from different fields.