Frequently Asked Questions

Residents primarily train at the 300-bed Crozer-Chester Medical Center (Upland, PA), the 168-bed Delaware County Memorial Hospital (Drexel Hill, PA), and our Centers for Family Health in Springfield and Upper Darby, PA. Our office in Springfield is a diagnostic and treatment center with 15 exam rooms and a procedure room. The office in Upper Darby opened in 2005 to serve a primarily international and underserved population and has recently transitioned to a Federally Qualified Health Center with a newly renovated office.

Delaware County is surprisingly diverse. Both of our outpatient offices see patients from a variety of cultures, ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds. The Center for Family Health at Upper Darby serves a significant number of first-generation immigrants and presents an opportunity for the residents to practice culturally sensitive, patient-oriented medicine. It also serves an underserved, inner-city population, including many Spanish-speaking patients from Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and other Central American countries, as well as a significant African population.

During the intern year, our residents work with Ob/Gyn, Medicine, Pediatrics, and Surgery residents while rotating through those departments and function fully as an intern on the team.

Call during the intern year varies with the rotation. For the most part, however, call will be about every 4th night during the first year with four call-free months. 

Interns take in-hospital call concerning patients on their respective service, meaning that they may be covering anything from the emergent cardiac catheterization cases while on cardiology to the ICU while on medicine. In the upper years, residents will cover both the inpatient service and calls from office patients. Residents also do admissions for the service and cover OB patients on labor and delivery. Because of our electronic medical record, upper year residents do have the option of taking call from home. For this option, residents must reside within a 30 min driving distance to Delaware County Memorial Hospital.

• ICU
• FHC 1
• PED 2
• ER-DC
• OB 1
• OB 2
• FHC 2
• MED
• SURG/PED 1-N
• CFH 1/COM
• GYN
• PED 1/SURG
• FHC 3

ICU - You are a note writer on one weekend day from 7 a.m. until you round and complete your work, Normal shift 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. another weekend day, and nights one weekend starting on a Sunday night. The fourth week may depend on how many interns are available for your block as it changes later in the year. You may have an additional note writer or regular shift during the fourth weekend day. You always will have at least one day off on the weekend.

Peds 1 (At Dupont)  - You do one weekend day for one week on your own with the attending and two weekend days during nights with a senior.

MED (Internal Medicine Service at CCMH) - Late call every four days where you work 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. You also have a weekend shift which is either Saturday or Sunday where you work as a note writer from 7 a.m. until you finish, or 7a.m. to 5 p.m. where you hold the pager for other services after they finish.

FHC 1- 3 (Our internal medicine service at DCMH) - You are on call one weekend day a week as either a 24-hour shift on Saturday or a note writer Sunday which is 7 a.m. to finish. You can finish anywhere from about 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Ped2 (Pediatric Nursery) - You work one weekend (Saturday and Sunday) from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The rest of the blocks, you are not on call as an intern.

Interns are given three weeks (15 days) of vacation and five days of CME. During both the second and third years, residents are given four weeks (20 days) of vacation and five days for CME.

Yes! This residency has historically been very democratic with an administration and faculty excited to respond to resident input. Dr. Warning, our program director, strongly advocates for resident issues. Residents are able to discuss their concerns with the Chiefs at monthly resident meetings. 

Although all residents become proficient in OB care and meet the delivery requirements during their three years, not all residents practice OB once they graduate. Residents who are interested in OB tend to pick up more prenatal patients and have elective opportunities for more training. Interns spend two months on OB, working with OB residents and attendings. During the second and third years, residents follow their own prenatal patients in the outpatient setting and then deliver these patients with our own family medicine attendings and collaborative OBGYN faculty. 

After receiving our HRSA expansion grant, we now accept nine residents per training year into the program. We are a dual-accredited program.

Our competency-based curriculum and flexible elective system allows each resident to develop expertise in the full spectrum of family medicine, including sports medicine, family-centered obstetrics, gynecology, geriatrics, behavioral medicine, women's health, and medical informatics. Throughout our curriculum, we place special emphasis on ambulatory care. Each rotation has defined competencies for residents and attendings to use as teaching guides and evaluation tools. We have recently implemented a new evaluation model centered around the ACGME Family Medicine Milestones in order to provide residents with a comprehensive overview of their strengths and weaknesses.

The two programs have a close relationship. Initiated in 1996, the Primary Care Sports Medicine Fellowship Program is based at the Healthplex campus of Springfield Hospital, a mile from the Center for Family Health. The Healthplex itself is a state-of-the-art, 176,000-square-foot wellness facility and health club. The Healthplex campus features the Sports Medicine Institute and the Center for Human Performance - our United States Olympic Committee-designated athlete testing facility - as well as a 14,000-square-foot comprehensive physical medicine and rehabilitation facility. The Center for Family Health supports continuity of care for sports medicine patients under the supervision of our three Family Medicine faculty who have certificates of Added Qualification in Sports Medicine. More information about the Sports Medicine Fellowship is available on Crozer Health's Residency & Education homepage; highlight "Fellowship" on the menu.

Residents choose to track at the Upper Darby Global Health Office by the beginning of their PGY-2 year. Each intern spends time at both offices then decides where they would like to build their continuity panel for the PGY-2 and PGY-3 years. There is currently no limit on the number of resident Upper Darby trackers we can have in each class, since our intent is to accommodate each resident's interest. All residents will spend time seeing patients at both our offices, with approximately 75 percent of their office time at the chosen continuity office.

Time to explore pathways comes out of the generous four months of elective time provided for each resident. Residents will work closely with their advisors and mentors to explore established pathways as well as create their own pathways if desired. Residents are given the flexibility needed to explore their existing and future interests and passions.