Women's Health
Obstetrics (Maternity Care)
Residents at Highland Family Medicine receive comprehensive training at the Family Maternity Center at Highland Hospital, the busiest hospital maternity service in Rochester with over 3,500 deliveries per year. All patients at Highland Hospital are considered teaching patients and residents are welcome and expected to participate in their care. Besides the Family Medicine faculty, residents have the opportunity to work with community family doctors, midwives, lactation consultants, pediatric nurse practitioners, and community obstetricians. Basic ultrasound training is provided in the first block that the resident spends at the Family Maternity Center.
Highland Hospital has a Special Care Nursery that is staffed by pediatricians and pediatric nurse practitioners, all of whom are very willing to teach residents how to resuscitate and stabilize ill newborns as well as manage common newborn problems.
All residents spend two months at the Family Maternity Center and attend 50-60 deliveries. Residents who choose to follow the Maternity Care Track spend a total of five months working at the Family Maternity Center where they are part of a team made up of Family Medicine Maternal Child Health fellows, OB residents, and medical students.
Residents learn to truly become involved in the lives of their patients when they provide prenatal care, attend the deliveries and take care of the new babies for a minimum of ten patients. Interested residents are able to have additional continuity patients as well as participate in shared care with family medicine faculty. In our Rocking Chair Project, residents go to the home of a pregnant mother and help her assemble a rocking chair that is then a gift to her.
We have a committed group of nine family physicians on our faculty who provide maternity care in their own practices and serve as hospital attendings. Three family doctors in this group are fellowship trained and two are currently doing C-sections. In addition, our faculty includes a long term OB/Gyn physician who has been very supportive of resident education.
Outpatient Gynecology
Gynecology teaching is a major part of every resident’s office practice, with many opportunities to learn well woman care, provide contraception, treat STDs and manage common gynecologic problems. Procedural training includes IUD insertion, endometrial biopsies, cervical cryotherapy and removal of skin lesions. One month in the second year is devoted to gynecological training that includes working with the OB/Gyn physician at Family Medicine and with community gynecologists learning about Gyn specialty areas including Urogynecology and Reproductive Genetics.
Colposcopy Training
Weekly Colposcopy Clinic
Durng their GYN rotation, residents are scheduled to do colposcopies, IUD insertions, cervical cryotherapy and endometrial biopsies in the Colposcopy Clinic held one afternoon each week. The clinic is staffed by two family medicine faculty, both of whom have extensive experience in doing colposcopy. Given the large numbers of female patients in most primary care practices, family physicians that are able to do these procedures are in high demand and are able to offer a valuable service to their patients.
Abortion Training
Highland Family Medicine offers a longitudinal reproductive health elective. The purpose of this elective is to provide training in medical and first trimester surgical abortions and well as first trimester ultrasound. Starting as an R2, one resident per year may enroll in this elective which encompasses elective time as well as weekly half day sessions when on outpatient rotations. The experience is at a private abortion practice. Residents work one on one with a national leader in the field of medical abortion, learning ultrasound, D+C and medical abortion techniques. At the completion of this elective residents have the skills to provide medical and surgical abortion care in their future practice.
