Family Medicine at South Nassau Communities Hospital

"Have no higher ambition than to become an all-around family doctor, whose business in life is to know disease and to know how to treat it."

- Sir William Osler

Our goal is to train physicians who are caring and competent in treating every member of the family, from the newborn to the grandparent. What sets the family physician apart from other specialists is the philosophy that all patients need some type of care, regardless of their age or the nature of their illness. Patients cannot oblige their physicians by presenting them with classic symptoms, textbook findings and a brisk response to the first therapeutic trial. Often there will be no clear-cut organic disease; nevertheless, they show up because they are in pain whether physical or emotional. The family physician must be motivated, curious and compassionate enough to discover the underlying problem.

To help achieve the goal of training excellent family physicians, we provide an enjoyable working environment with close faculty supervision and personal support for the individual resident. The atmosphere within the hospital is one of friendliness and cooperation.

The Family Medicine Residency Program is the only residency program sponsored by South Nassau Communities Hospital, and is often referred to as the “jewel of the hospital”. South Nassau has a full affiliation agreement with Nassau University Medical Center, a nearby tertiary care center, where Family Medicine residents spend one month in their ICU. South Nassau Family Medicine also has affiliation agreements with the State University of New York at Stony Brook School of Medicine, and the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine, and the Family Medicine Center serves as a major clinical site for their required Family Medicine clerkships.

THE FAMILY MEDICINE CENTER

South Nassau Family Medicine, our Family Medicine Center, is a brand-new multi-million-dollar facility designed specifically for the training of Family Medicine residents. The 10,000 square-foot structure is a freestanding facility located just one block from the hospital. The Center houses a reception area, nursing station, 17 examining rooms, a procedure room, a residents’ work area, precepting areas, administrative offices, a business office and a state-of- the-art conference room. The Center is equipped with the technology to perform spirometry, common dermatologic procedures, audiometery, colposcopy, fetal heart monitoring, cryotherapy and endometrial biopsies and minor surgical procedures. The examination rooms are designed to enhance patient education and comfort and one even has videotaping capabilities used for teaching purposes. The conference room has teleradiography, videoconferencing capabilities, PowerPoint, DVD and VCR capabilities. Glass blocks and skylights throughout the facility provide a warm, friendly environment, and because the administrative offices are located on site, there is easy access to the faculty and the entire Family Medicine staff.