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, 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 eight weeks of elective time on rotations such as sports rehab, 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 San Antonio’s premier inpatient rehabilitation unit located at University Hospital, taking care of medically complex patients including transplant recipients.
    • 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.
    • PAM Health Warm Springs Rehabilitation Hospital of San Antonio located in the South Texas Medical Center, is a partnership between PAM Health and University Hospital, and houses both a large inpatient rehabilitation unit that is Brain Injury and Spinal Cord Injury certified, as well as our outpatient clinic footprint, which houses some of our Spasticity, Pediatric Rehab, MSK/Amputee, and EMG clinics.
    • UT Health Medical Arts & Research Center (MARC) is an outpatient facility located in the South Texas Medical Center.  The MARC houses some of our Spasticity clinics, as well as the Multidisciplinary Spine Center, where residents get exposure to comprehensive spine care.
    • UT Health San Antonio Mays Cancer Center MD Anderson Cancer Center (MAYS) located in the South Texas Medical Center serves the cancer needs of San Antonio.  It is the home of San Antonio’s only Cancer Rehabilitation clinic, which residents rotate through.
    • UT Health at Kyle Seale Parkway (KSP) an outpatient and surgery center dedicated to delivering primary, specialty and surgical care to South Texans.  KSP houses some of our PM&R Sports Medicine Physicians.
    • Brooks Army Medical Center Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (BAMC) is the active-duty military hospital in San Antonio, and one of two level 1 trauma centers in the greater San Antonio area.  We are privileged to rotate through both the medicine wards and the Surgical Trauma ICU as PGY1 residents.
    • UT Health Multispecialty and Research Hospital (MSRH) is a newly opened UT facility located in South Texas Medical Center.  Our PMR department is hoping to expand our PM&R consultative offerings at MSRH.

A Welcome from the Program Director

Benjamin Seidel, DOAs Residency Program Director, I place a very heavy emphasis on the quality of education that our residents receive.  Learning occurs everywhere during residency – in the clinic, in the hospital, during didactic lectures, and even at home reviewing texts.  Learning, however, doesn’t stop with residency.  One of my jobs as Program Director is to help nurture curiosity and to support lifelong learning.  Shoshin is a word from Zen Buddhism meaning “beginner’s mind.”  It refers to having an attitude of openness, eagerness, and a lack of preconceptions when studying a subject, even when studying at an advanced level just as a beginner would.  It is this concept that I attempt to embody in my own mind – and to instill in others as well.  Even the most expert sub-specialist can learn to see their patients with “fresh eyes”.  It is with this philosophy that I apply all of my teachings.

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

Benjamin Seidel, DO
Residency Program Director

Corey Hayes, MD“Southern hospitality” meets “hospital” here at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. The Lone Star State is known for its good food, kind people, and low cost of living among many other things. Fortunately for our residents, our program is known for the same. We are one of the country’s largest PM&R programs; because of that, and our location, we have incredible training opportunities. The larger size of our program is not only a benefit when it comes to spreading the call load, but it also means you have that many more people who are happy and willing to answer questions or offer mentorship. The program itself has many tangible training benefits including training at a county hospital, VA, one of five polytrauma centers in the country, diverse inpatient and outpatient opportunities, academic and private practice models, bountiful opportunities for procedures (starting intern year!), tons of research, access to most sub-specialties, and faculty and staff who are leaders in their respective fields. In particular several of our attendings lead their respective fields and have quite literally written entire textbooks on spasticity and EMGs. The mixture of tangible and intangible benefits gained from our program makes UT Health San Antonio a special place. We really are one big, happy, and well-trained family here at UT Health San Antonio PM&R!

Corey Hayes, MD, PMR Wellness & MS4 Liaison Chief Resident