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Family Health Center

The UPMC Shadyside Family Health Center provides a well-organized and comfortable setting for your practice experience. The center serves many diverse sectors of the Pittsburgh community: families of the poor and disenfranchised rely on us for personalized, comprehensive care; families of graduate students from nearby universities provide us with an international perspective; and our neighbors from the surrounding communities prefer the concern, availability, and continuity of care that is routine at the Family Health Center. 

The center has special and warm relationships with a multitude of nearby service organizations and facilities, including the Pittsburgh Women's Center and Shelter, organizations serving the gay community, Alpha House Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation programs, Healthy Beginnings Plus, two school systems, and Chatham College, a nearby women's college where residents rotate to obtain experience in the medical care and social problems of young adults in college. These well-established relationships give you the diverse experiences essential to becoming a well-rounded physician, without the hassles and time investment involved in going outside the residency program.

In 1985, the Family Health Center pioneered a computerized medical record system. After 18 years of successful use, it was retired in favor of a new automated chart system in May of 2003. Physicians enter encounter data directly into the automated medical record. Each exam room is equipped with a computer and a monitor. All lab, x-ray, and progress notes from other doctors and hospitals in the system are available at the click of a mouse. Direct connections to the Health Science Library and drug interaction checkers assure access to critical information at the time of care. The Health Maintenance module provides patient-specific advice about needed preventive and disease management interventions. The Family Health Center was the first site in the country to use the Cerner PowerNote medical record for primary care.

Access to the UPMC HSLS Medical Library, UPMC Medical Record System, including inpatient and outpatient physician notes, H&P’s, and discharge summaries are readily available from every computer at the Family Health Center. Office precepting enables you to discuss each case with an experienced family physician while seeing the patient. Some of our preceptors are themselves in private practice, thus ensuring exposure to a variety of practice styles. On-site consultations with our social worker, obstetrician, pediatrician, and psychiatrist are available upon request. Faculty in ob-gyn run regular clinics, allowing the referring resident to perform additional procedures with an experienced hand nearby. These faculty, along with family practice faculty, also teach colposcopy, flexible sigmoidoscopy, obstetric ultrasonography, and other important techniques. We use technology to complete electronic dermatology consults and retinal scans for diabetic patients are done on-site.

A preceptor can provide you with electronic feedback about your office visits. This provides you with yet another avenue for clinical advice and feedback that is absolutely essential to an excellent education in medicine.

The program offers regular ambulatory care seminars every Wednesday afternoon. The seminars tend to emphasize techniques of problem-solving rather than the rote ingestion of facts. The occasional presence of third- and fourth-year medical students further enriches the academic atmosphere at the center.

Since residents have many responsibilities outside the office, the skilled and dedicated Family Health Center staff plays a major role in helping residents care for patients. Protocols and office systems developed by residents, faculty, and staff ensure appropriate care and provide you with models for your own future practice. The independent organization of the center and its fully-equipped laboratory and x-ray services allow you to learn all the skills you will need to run a thriving, efficient practice, whether urban, suburban, or rural. The UPMC Shadyside Family Health Center provides a well-organized and comfortable setting for your practice experience. The center serves many diverse sectors of the Pittsburgh community: families of the poor and disenfranchised rely on us for personalized, comprehensive care; families of graduate students from nearby universities provide us with an international perspective; and our neighbors from the surrounding communities prefer the concern, availability, and continuity of care that is routine at the Family Health Center.