Program Overview

Rush Inpatient Care

In 1997, Rush opened a technologically advanced 20-bed inpatient unit that includes monitoring systems for patients leaving the intensive care units as well as video-EEG monitoring rooms for epilepsy patients. The unit houses all patients with primary neurological diagnoses including stroke, neuromuscular diseases, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and movement disorders.

Rush Consultation Service

Rush maintains an active consultation service. The consultation service is staffed by junior and senior neurology residents, senior medicine residents, Rush medical students and an attending neurologist.

Rush Outpatient Care

Resident Continuity Clinic -- Each resident is assigned to work in a continuity clinic for a half day each week. Patients are referred from regional physicians and Rush physicians, and the clinic follows a private-practice model. Appointments are scheduled and confirmed by the clinic's staff. Full-time, academic general neurologists supervise the clinic.

Subspecialty Outpatient Rotations

During the PGY-2 year, each resident completes two four-week rotations in the following subspecialty outpatient clinics: multiple sclerosis, dementia, neuromuscular disease, stroke, epilepsy and movement disorders. During the PGY-3 and PGY-4 years, at least four months of subspecialty outpatient rotations are completed, chosen from among all of the subspecialties of neurology.

Conferences

The Department of Neurological Sciences offers a variety of conferences. Weekly conferences include Neurology Grand Rounds, Clinical-Neuroradiology-Neuropathology Conference, Chairman's Rounds with the Residents, Neurology Residents' Ambulatory Neurology Conference and the Neurology Residents' Basic Science Didactic Course. Monthly conferences include Journal Club and Pediatric Neurology Conference. There is a quarterly Joint Neurology-Psychiatry Residents' Conference. In addition, there are a number of weekly subspecialty-based conferences, such as Movement Disorders Video Rounds, Clinical Neurophysiology Conference, Seizure Surgery Conference and Neurovascular Conference. There is also a weekly Neuropathology brain-cutting session.

Neurology at Cook County Hospital

Cook County Hospital is a public health care facility adjacent to Rush. Through an academic affiliation between Rush and Cook County Hospital, Rush residents have the opportunity to see patients at both institutions. Cook County serves a diverse population, affording residents opportunities to treat a wide range of neurological problems. Weekly case conferences lectures, and neuropathology conferences add to the academic experience.

A new Cook County Hospital is expected to open in late 2002. This state-of-the-art facility will only add to the quality of the Cook County Hospital experience.

Rotations at Cook County Hospital

A resident has several rotations at Cook County as a PGY-2 and, again, as a more senior resident. The traditional academic hospital environment allows the resident to assume responsibility for the care of patients under the guidance of the attending staff. In this setting, clinical skills in history and physical examination are emphasized in the daily care of patients who have neurological diseases. A team, consisting of the senior and junior neurology residents, senior medicine residents and medical students, cares for patients admitted to the neurology service. The number of consults and admissions evaluated by the team totals about 100 each month.

Outpatient Clinics at Cook County Hospital

While rotating at Cook County Hospital, residents participate in seizure clinic and general neurology clinics. Neurology attendings from Cook County and Rush staff see the patients seen by residents. There is also a weekly residents' clinic that Rush neurology residents participate in when not assigned to other clinical rotations at Rush.

The neurology clinics take place in the state-of-the-art ambulatory space of the new Cook County Hospital.

On-Call Responsibilities

Neurology residents are required to be in house, on call, approximately every fourth or fifth night during their first year of residency. Residents are not required to be on call during the two months of outpatient subspecialty rotations during the first year. Second-year neurology residents do not have any in-house call responsibilities, but they usually have two months of back-up call duties while serving as junior chief residents. Third-year residents spend approximately six months as chief resident with back-up call responsibilities from home.