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Family Medicine Residency - Northeast

Change people’s lives for the better. Learn how with a Geisinger family medicine residency.

About us

Training you and your colleagues to be the best future physicians: That’s the academic goal of the Kistler Family Medicine Residency in Wilkes-Barre. Named in honor of highly regarded family physician and community leader David Kistler, MD, the program teaches community-based family physicians so they can thrive in our local area, the state of Pennsylvania and the rest of the country.

The program launched in 2007 and attracts talented medical students from across the country. As a resident, you’ll practice in a dedicated family medicine residency clinic attached to the hospital in which you admit adult patients on an unopposed service. Throughout your residency, you’ll establish your own panel of patients, whom you’ll follow to the hospital or nursing home and across the continuum of their care.

  • Your training will focus on providing high-quality, patient-centered care. We encourage residents to become caring and conscientious community family medicine physicians — doctors we would want as our own personal physicians.
  • Once you complete our program, we hope you’ll become our colleague at Geisinger. Residents trained here can stay here if they choose.
  • If you go elsewhere, use what you’ve learned here to improve care in other places and act as an ambassador for our program and Geisinger.
 

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> Meet the Residents & Alumni

Our home: Northeastern Pennsylvania

Northeastern Pennsylvania (NEPA) is a great place to live, with safe neighborhoods, an affordable cost of living and access to recreational activities. NEPA is close to New York City and Philadelphia, giving you access to major cities in just a few hours. Overall, our communities are a good bet for living stress-free, healthy lifestyles. And more importantly, NEPA is a place where you can make a difference.

Curriculum

This three-year residency is based at Geisinger South Wilkes-Barre, with select rotations at Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center. Our family medicine residency curriculum meets the requirements for both the American Osteopathic Board of Family Physicians (ABOFP) and the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) and is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).

PGY1 rotations

Your first year emphasizes acute inpatient care with both children and adults. You’ll spend one to two half-days per week in our outpatient clinic.

  • Inpatient pediatrics
  • Obstetrics (two blocks)
  • Inpatient family medicine (two blocks)
  • Cardiology
  • Dermatology
  • Orthopaedics and podiatry
  • Emergency medicine
  • Gynecology
  • General surgery and trauma
  • ICU
  • Newborn service
PGY2 rotations

Your second year will expand upon the skills learned in the first year and introduces continuity obstetrical care, home visits, nursing home and office-based skills. You’ll spend two to four half-days per week in our outpatient clinic.

  • Psychiatry consult liaison
  • Pulmonology and sleep medicine
  • Inpatient family medicine (three blocks)
  • Pediatric urgent care
  • Geriatrics
  • Inpatient pediatrics
  • Practice management
  • PCU
  • Elective (two blocks)
  • Radiology/rheumatology
  • Addiction medicine
  • Outpatient pediatrics and child abuse
PGY3 rotations

Your third year will give you time to explore the aspects of family medicine you feel you need prior to graduation and your transition to independent practice. You’ll spend three to four half-days per week in our outpatient clinic.

  • Urology
  • Inpatient family medicine (two blocks)
  • Sports medicine
  • Outpatient pediatrics
  • Community medicine
  • ENT and ophthalmology
  • Elective (four blocks)
  • Endocrinology and gastroenterology
  • Hematology/oncology and palliative care

You’ll have additional education through weekly core lectures, grand rounds and a longitudinal practice management immersion. You’ll enjoy teaching opportunities, both on inpatient and outpatient rotations, as well as various other settings, with both Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine students as well as medical students who rotate through VSAS.

There is no call expectation in the PGY1 year. Call in the PGY2 and PGY3 year is at home taking outpatient phone calls and questions, and occurs at a rate of less than 1:12. PGY2 and PGY3 residents also cover Saturday clinic hours one-on-one with faculty a few times each year.

Residents in the community

Volunteers in Medicine

Volunteers in Medicine is a local free clinic in downtown Wilkes-Barre, Pa. You’ll spend two to four afternoons over the course of your PGY2 year volunteering alongside community primary care physicians.
Leahy Clinic

Edward R. Leahy Jr. Clinic for The Uninsured is a free clinic for adults in Scranton, Pa. You’ll spend two to four afternoons over the course of your PGY3 year volunteering in conjunction with Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine students.
Wilkes-Barre Area School District

Jason Woloski, MD, acts as medical director for the school system. As such, our residents and faculty provide school and sports physicals for hundreds of children and teenagers within the district and serve as sideline physicians for high school football home games.

Specialty tracks

Addiction Medicine Track

This is a competitive three-year track designed for one resident per class. Applications are taken in the fall of PGY1. The track includes additional training in various settings, additional teaching responsibilities and a scholarly activity. While it may be used as preparation for an addiction medicine fellowship, that is not a requirement for application.
Academic Medicine Track

This competitive three-year track is open to one resident per class year, similar to other tracks. It provides a continuity experience that is in addition to a resident’s normal curriculum. The intention of this track is to prepare the resident to develop the skills necessary to seek a career in academics.

Frequently asked questions

Where are we located?

The Kistler Family Medicine Residency at Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center (GWV) is in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. We are approximately 60 miles from Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pa., two hours from Philadelphia and New York City and three hours from Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
How many residents do we accept? How many MDs/DOs do we take annually?

We take six residents per year. Ranking is based on our applicant pool, which changes on a year-to-year basis. Our goal is to recruit top residents, so we don’t set a standard ratio of DO residents to MD residents.
Is the program opposed?

We consider our program to be virtually unopposed. Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center (GWV) hosts a general surgery residency program, an orthopaedic residency program and an internal medicine residency program. As a family medicine resident, you’ll rotate with the surgery residents during your general surgery rotation and with orthopedic residents when on your orthopedics/podiatry rotation and your sports medicine rotations. Your inpatient experience at Geisinger South Wilkes-Barre does not conflict with the internal medicine resident service at GWV. You may also come into contact with, but not in opposition to, additional graduate-level learners such as podiatry residents, sports medicine fellows and addiction medicine fellows.
How are continuity clinics structured?

You are assigned and will build up your own panel of continuity patients over the course of your residency. You’ll see your patients at the Geisinger South Wilkes-Barre clinic site adjacent to the hospital. PGY1 residents have one to two half-days per week in clinic; PGY2/3 residents have three to four half-days in clinic per week.
Are there opportunities for teaching?

As a resident, you’ll interact with and teach students from Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, as well as VSAS applicants on multiple inpatient and outpatient rotations throughout residency.
Are there research opportunities?

We require our residents to complete team-based quality improvement projects on an annual basis — you’ll present the resulting posters at Geisinger’s Annual Resident and Fellow Scholarship Days. We require you to complete one research project of your choosing over your entire residency.
Are there any special educational tracks?

We offer an Addiction Medicine Track. And we pride ourselves on helping you tailor your education to meet your future career goals —particularly if you’re interested in obstetrics, urgent care or academic medicine.
Is couples matching available?

Yes, we have historically taken residents within a couples match and would certainly consider doing so again.
How are we accredited?

The program is accredited through the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). We welcome and accept allopathic and osteopathic applicants.
Do we use an electronic health record?

Yes. Geisinger uses Epic as a fully integrated record across the entire system.
Are we part of a patient-centered medical home (PCMH)?

Yes. Geisinger is nationally known as one of the leaders in the PCMH model. As a resident, you’ll participate in our medical home through weekly and monthly huddles and meetings, as well as through collaborative work with embedded nurse case managers, who will help you with your own patients.
What do graduates do after they complete the program?

The majority move on to realizing their vision of family medicine — including graduates who practice inpatient and outpatient, inpatient only or outpatient only, as well as graduates who provide continuity obstetrical care. About 50% of our graduates stay within the tri-state area of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York, with the remainder spread across the country. We have also had graduates go into careers in urgent care, palliative care, sports medicine and geriatrics. Geisinger-based fellowship opportunities for family medicine graduates include sports medicine, palliative care, nutrition and obesity medicine, hospitalist medicine, addiction medicine and sleep medicine.
Do we sponsor visas?

No, the program doesn’t currently sponsor visas.

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