The Division of General Internal Medicine Loyola University Chicago Medical Center was established over 40 years ago soon after the opening of the Maywood campus and was restructured in the mid 1990’s when primary care formed its own department.  Since then it has remained committed to compassionate high quality patient-centered care, medical education, and innovative scholarship.  Major clinical programs include the inpatient teaching services, co-management of surgical patients, general internal medicine consultative services and palliative care.

Its primary goals include:

• Offering a comprehensive patient care system specializing in the diagnosis and management of medically complex adult patients
• Managing  care in a team-oriented patient-centered fashion
• Developing mastery in graduate and undergraduate education
• Maintaining commitment to scientific and intellectual rigor and life-long learning
• Maintaining commitment to quality improvement  by active leadership in quality improvement initiatives
• Role modeling all aspects of professionalism in the educational and patient-care settings.
• Offering expertise in perioperative evaluation and management
• Offering expertise in consultative medicine
• Developing a mastery of technical communication

FACULTY INFORMATION

Division faculty members include:

• William Cannon
• Mathew Fitz
• Edward Gurza
• Paul Hering
• Theresa Kristopaitis
• Keith Muccino
•  Laura Ozark

There are 50 full and part-time physicians at the Edward Hines VA under the leadership of Dr. Scott Pawlikowski.

FACULTY EDUCATIONAL/SCHOLARSHIP ACTIVITIES

Medical education is paramount to the mission of the Division of General Internal Medicine.  Since its inception the division’s physicians have been educational leaders at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Its major programs include:

• To enhance the experience of residents and students rotating through the inpatient general medicine services, a daily morning report was initiated in 2000 and continues to be led by the division.  The quality of teaching on the inpatient medicine services and at the general medicine morning report as assessed through resident and student feedback surveys has consistently been rated at “above average” to “outstanding” levels. 
• In collaboration with Loyola Center for Home Care and Hospice, in 2002 a “Hospice Experience” was developed to expand end of life care training for internal medicine residents.   The experience gives residents the opportunity to attend a hospice interdisciplinary team meeting and accompany nurses on home visits.  This now includes experience in palliative care consultation.
• The development and implementation of a teaching skills workshop for incoming first year house staff to promote residents as teachers.  The focus of these workshops was learning how to provide effective feedback.
• The incorporation of clinical pharmacists into the daily clinical and educational activities of the inpatient services.
• The development and implementation of a comprehensive plan for the clinical competency evaluation for first year residents in the Department of Medicine. Division members regularly serve on the Residency Review Committee.
• The development and implementation of a comprehensive assessment of the teaching qualities of division faculty with the goals of improving the educational experience on the teaching services and develop a more robust faculty development program.

The Division provides critical leadership to medical education at the Stritch School of Medicine.

Leadership roles of Division members within the medical school include:

• Assistant Dean for Clinical Education  (Dr Hering)
• Curriculum Director, Year Three & Four (Dr Hering)
• Course Director, Mechanisms of Disease  (Dr Kristopaitis)
• Competency Director (Dr Kristopaitis)
• Curriculum Director, Year One (Dr Kristopaitis)
• Director, End of Life Curriculum (Dr Kristopaitis)
• Associate Medical Director, Loyola Hospice (Dr Kristopaitis)
• Clerkship/Sub internship director (Dr Fitz)
• Director, Teaching elective (Dr Fitz)
• Assistant Dean, Educational Affairs (Dr Muccino)

Stritch School of Medicine identified the development of a comprehensive end of life curriculum as a  priority.  Division members have developed comprehensive end of life curricular goals and objectives and the subsequent implementation of a comprehensive curriculum that spans the basic science course and clinical clerkships.

The comprehensive competency assessment plan for the four year medical school curriculum as well as for some GME programs was developed and implemented by members of the division.   Performance evaluation standards for all levels of education are being developed and implemented.

FACULTY AWARDS AND HONORS

• Three members of the division have been elected as Master Teachers by their faculty peers.
• Members of the Division are regular recipients of teaching awards from the house staff and from the students.

SELECTED FACULTY PUBLICATIONS

“Integrating learning of basic science concepts and physical examination skills in Combined Clinical Skills/basic science sessions for first year medical students” (IAMSE 7/02)

“Pilot study for a valid comprehensive standardized clinical skills assessment program for core clinical clinical competencies across all required clerkships (AAMC-RIME 11/02)

First Year Medical Students As Competent Interviewers: Standardized Patient Encounters Measuring Clinical and Interpersonal Skills in Preparation for Clerkships.       Presented at the AAMC Annual Session, San Francisco, Ca, November, 1996

A 360-degree Feedback Approach To Develop and Assess First Year Medical Student’s Clinical Skills. Presented at the International Association of Medical Science Educators’ Annual Session, Rochester, MN, July, 2000

Innovative Approaches to Incorporating and Assessing Clinical Competencies During the Internal Medicine Subinternship – A Multi-Institutional Experience – Workshop Presentation - 2006 Course Directors in Internal Medicine (CDIM) National Meeting - New Orleans, October 2006

“Medical Students as Members of a Discharge Planning Team” – Poster Presentation – American Academy on Communication in Healthcare Research and Teaching Forum –Atlanta, October 2006

Use of the Objective Structured Clinical Examination in the Surgery Clerkship to Assess Critical Thinking. 2004 (abstract)

Process of Implementing Competencies into Undergraduate Medical Education: Successes and Challenges. CGEA (AAMC), Madison, Wis  April, 2005

Clinical

Gurza, E. Chapter "Thyroiditis," Saunders Manual of Medical Practice. W.B.Saunders, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (in press) 2006

Kristopaitis, T. Chapter “Falls in the Elderly”, Essential Evidence Plus. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.2008

Gurza, E. Chapter “Deep Vein Thrombosis”, Essential Evidence Plus. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.2008

Gurza, E. Chapter “Pulmonary Embolism”, Essential Evidence Plus.  John Wiley & Sons, Inc.2008

Gurza, E. Chapter “Superficial Thrombophlebitis”, Essential Evidence Plus. 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Pinzur  M, Gurza E, Kristopaitis T et al. Hospitalist-Orthopedic Co-management of High-risk Patients Undergoing Lower Extremity Reconstruction Surgery. Orthopedics 2009; 32:1-7

Contact Us
To schedule an appointment, please contact Loyola Central Scheduling at (708) 216-8563. To contact the Division of General Internal Medicine administration, please call (708) 216-8602. A list of our physicians can be found here.

Edward J Gurza, MD, FACP
Associate Professor of Medicine
Director, Division of General Internal Medicine