Letter from the Program Director
Thank you for your interest in the Latrobe Hospital Family Medicine Residency. Our program was founded in 1974 in collaboration with Thomas Jefferson University’s Jefferson Medical College as a direct response to a community need for well-trained physicians to care for local families. Since then, we have graduated more than 170 residents, and I am proud to say we have more than met that need.
We pride ourselves on being one of the best programs in Pennsylvania, based on a few key principles by which we abide:
First, we have always tried to make our training as much like “the real world” as possible. Each resident is assigned to one of three family medicine offices (two of which are in rural communities) for their outpatient training. Each office is staffed by three or four attending physicians. In this apprenticeship model, the residents are treated like partners in a real office setting. Each of the three offices has its own inpatient family medicine service at Latrobe Hospital, consisting of patients from their respective office and managed by the same office teams of residents and faculty. This allows for the highest degree of continuity of care and “patient ownership.”
Next, we truly value what our residents think and involve them in every aspect of the program. From resident recruitment and selection, to curricular changes (both large and small), to any challenges the program may face, we include the residents in the decision-making process.
Lastly, and most importantly, we recognize the importance of our residents and their families' well-being. We foster this by offering optional hospital-subsidized housing across the street from the hospital. Since we allow residents to take call from home all three years if they live across the street, they can do such things as tuck their children in at night or run home to let the dog out.
We continue to have a close relationship with Jefferson and are rated as their top family medicine student clerkship almost every year. We have also been a proud member of the PCOM Mednet OPTI since 2005 and serve as a site for core medical student rotations.
Strengths of our program include inpatient medicine, geriatrics, outpatient pediatrics, and our outpatient family medicine training sites. Our biggest strength, however, is our people. We also boast a first time pass rate of 99 percent on the American Board of Family Medicine certification examination. This speaks to both our strong clinical and didactic training.
Recently, some of our graduates have pursued fellowships in geriatrics, sports medicine and obstetrics. Some work as hospitalists, some in urgent care, some in the outpatient setting, with most practicing “traditional” inpatient/outpatient family medicine. Our graduates literally can go anywhere from here and do anything.
We invite you to review our web site for additional information about our program. And, we look forward to meeting you soon.
Michael W. Semelka, DO
Family Medicine
Residency Program Director