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Residency

The Rehabilitation Medicine Residency Training Program accepts eight residents per academic year. All PGY-1 level positions are committed to the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP). Applications will be accepted through the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS).

Overview

Our residents gain training and experience in all aspects of the field of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) by utilizing the resources of UT Health San Antonio, the University Health System and the South Texas Veterans Health Care System, in addition to community resources. Our patient population is large and varied, encompasses all age groups, and includes private, indigent and VA patients. We have a very favorable ratio of faculty physicians to residents (17 faculty physiatrists/32 residents), which assures the resident of adequate guidance and supervision and of an optimal teaching program.

Our educational capabilities are, of course, greatly enhanced by the availability of multiple other teaching activities in the Long School of Medicine and the other units of the UT Health San Antonio, all of these are available to our residents, including the UT Health San Antonio medical library, Learning Resources Center and demand access television.

In addition, residents attend interdisciplinary teaching clinics or conferences such as Spine Clinic, Musculoskeletal Clinic, Neuro Rehab Clinic, Amputee/Orthotic/Neurolysis Clinics, PM&R Clinic, Pain Clinic, Spasticity Clinic, Spinal Cord Injury Clinic, Urodynamic Clinic, and Wheelchair Clinic.

The Department of Rehabilitation Medicine offers an ACGME-accredited four-year categorical residency training program, providing 36 months of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation training and 12 months of fundamental clinical skills as required by the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.

Don’t forget to check out our competitive Salary and Benefits.

  • Clinical Skills

    Clinical Skills

    The 12 months of fundamental clinical skills are specifically tailored to the practice of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation during PGY-1, Internship.

    • 4 months of Internal Medicine (1 month Medical Intensive Care Unit)
    • 1 month Surgical Trauma ICU – SAMMC
    • 3 months of Orthopedic Surgery
    • 1 months of Geriatrics and Pallative Care (Inpatient and Outpatient)
    • 1 month of Neurology
    • 1 month of Rheumatology
    • 1 month Rehabilitation Medicine Consults

  • Rotations

    Rotations

    During the 36 months of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation rotations, the resident is exposed to a variety of practice settings in physiatry, including:

    • Inpatient Adult and Pediatric Rehabilitation
    • Outpatient Adult Rehabilitation
      • General Outpatient Rehabilitation
      • Pain Management
      • Musculoskeletal Medicine with Ultrasound
      • Amputee Medicine with Orthotics/Prosthetics
      • Neurologic Rehabilitation
      • Outpatient Spinal Cord Injury Medicine.
    • Outpatient Pediatric Rehabilitation, during which the resident is introduced to the management of various conditions, including cerebral palsy, spina bifida, burns, and traumatic brain injury.
    • Rehab Medicine Inpatient Consultation Service
    • Electrodiagnostic Medicine
    • Interventional Pain Medicine
    • Sports Medicine
    • Night Float: PGY-2 and PGY-3 residents provide acute medical coverage at the three onsite inpatient rehab units when the acute rehab team is off duty during weeknights. This rotation is for one month from Monday – Thursday and does not exceed 18 total days per resident per year.
    • Electives: PGY-3 and PGY-4 residents are allowed to pursue up to six weeks of elective time on rotations such as radiology, wound care and hyperbaric medicine just to name a few.

  • Procedures

    Procedures and Performance

    Effective July 1, 2015, the following minimums apply.

    • EMG/NCS (Total performed and observed) 200
    • EMG/NCS (Performed) 150
    • Axial Epidural Injection (Total) 5
    • Axial: facet, SI joint, nerve block (Total) 5
    • Periph joint/intra-artic inj/tendon sheath/bursa inj (Total) 20
    • Periph joint/intra-artic inj/tendon sheath/bursa inj (Performed) 15
    • Botulinum toxin injection (Total) 20
    • Botulinum toxin injection (Performed) 15
    • Ultrasound (Total) 10

     

    Intensive formal and informal instruction and experience are given to each resident in electrodiagnostic medicine test procedures. The training and experience afforded in these areas exceeds that which is recommended by the American Board of Electrodiagnostic Medicine.

    Our residents have also started a monthly resident run Ultrasound workshop held at the Veteran’s Affairs Hospital.

  • Facilities

    Facilities

    The Department is involved in the operation of four rehabilitation units in the primary teaching and affiliated hospitals. During the residency training program, each resident is assigned responsibility for patients on each of these units on a rotational basis. During the remainder of the training program, the resident is assigned on a rotational basis to each of the other clinical areas within the Department.

    • Reeves Rehabilitation Center at University Hospital is a state-of-the-art outpatient clinic and inpatient facility.
    • The Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veteran’s Affairs Hospital (part of the South Texas Veterans Health Care System) has a spinal cord injury unit, spinal cord injury outpatient clinic, polytrauma inpatient unit, and traumatic brain injury outpatient clinic. The Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center in San Antonio is one of five VA centers nationally, built to provide a comprehensive rehabilitation approach to treating complex polytrauma injuries. The 12- bed unit provides a unique environment to allow service members and veterans the ability to recover after polytrauma injuries. The spinal cord injury unit at the VA is a 30-bed unit that provides specialized care to the veterans of South Texas. The department also provides various off-site rotations which include private practice inpatient rehabilitation, private practice outpatient sports clinic, UT Health pain clinic, pediatric inpatient rehabilitation and outpatient clinics.
    • Each resident is assigned to an active Pediatric Rehabilitation rotation at Christus Santa Rosa Children’s Hospital of San Antonio  for two months.
    • Warm Springs Rehabilitation Hospital of San Antonio

Contact Us

Kim Garza
Academic Programs Coordinator – Lead
Department of Rehabilitation Medicine
Phone: (210) 567-5359
FAX: (210) 567-5354
Email: GarzaK@uthscsa.edu

Didactics

Our module system is not only clinically relevant, but was designed to encompass the topics that are tested on the national board certification examinations per the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (ABPM&R) once every 18 months. The topics are separated into core topics, high-yield fundamental topics, and specialty topics that are still beneficial. Core topics are allocated more lecture time as they appear more frequently on the written boards.

Didactics and Coursework

Duty Hours

The Department of Rehabilitation Medicine Residency Training Program recognizes that a sound academic and clinical education must be carefully planned and balanced with concerns for patient safety and resident well-being.  Learning objectives of the program must not be compromised by excessive reliance on residents to fulfill service obligations.

Duty Hours

Medical Student Rotations

Students from medical schools accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) or American Osteopathic Association (AOA) are eligible to apply to take 4-week senior electives.

4th Year Medical Student Rotations

Ana Henriques Poster Presentation

Residency Research

Our residents our highly engaged in research publication and advancing the field of rehabilitation. Many past and current residents have presented at national presentations and published in major journals. In addition, residents are required to complete a QI project to help further improve outcomes in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.

A Welcome from the Program Director

Welcome to San Antonio!!! Thank you for looking at our program.  We are excited to help you launch your career into the best field of medicine – Physiatry!

Resident education is the top priority of our department.  As one of the largest PM&R residencies in the country, we strive to create a family-like community (a “familia”) among all faculty and residents.  We are  committed to educating and training future leaders and making our residents the most competent and skilled in the entire field of Rehabilitation Medicine.  Our trainees will also be prepared for continuous lifelong learning and quality improvement due to skills attained in residency here, as well as achieve long-term personal wellness.

My roll as Residency Program Director is one of service. I am here to advocate for your professional development and to ensure that we as a department are always improving, expanding and implementing the best clinical and education practices. I promise to make myself available to you when needed and to work together for best outcomes.

Thank you for considering our program. Please always feel welcome to reach out to me.

Monica Verduzco-Gutierrez, M.D.
Department Chair & Residency Program Director

Ryder Connolly
“It is said that everything is bigger in Texas, and that’s certainly true for our residency program. As one of the largest PM&R programs in the country, we are fortunate to be able to rotate through a huge variety of patient settings and subspecialties—all within a one-mile radius.  A bigger program also means that our residents have unique opportunities such as working at one of only 5 polytrauma centers in the country, learning EMGs from the man who literally wrote the book on the subject, and working with sports medicine physicians in the Spurs sports clinic. Our procedure numbers are also big, partially because we start doing procedures intern year when we get to work in an orthopedic clinic for 3 months. Our residency leaders dream big, our fellowship match rate is huge, and our didactic activities are ambitious. About the only thing that isn’t big around here is the cost of living!”

Ryder Connolly, M.D., Resident PGY-4