Program Overview

The three-year gastroenterology fellowship program emphasizes and offers extensive clinical training in gastroenterology and hepatology. The program encompasses inpatient general gastroenterology rotations, outpatient clinics, subspecialty consultation services, and a wide variety of endoscopic procedures.

At our home institution, Olympia Fields Hospital, fellows rotate through the inpatient teaching service, outpatient endoscopy, and a half-day general gastroenterology continuity clinic. Our fellows also participate in research activities and quality improvement projects to supplement their clinical training.

The inpatient teaching service will expose fellows to a wide variety of gastrointestinal problems, including acute inflammatory bowel disease processes and major gastrointestinal hemorrhages. Fellows will evaluate all new consults at Olympia Fields Hospital and be assigned to a continuity clinic one-half day per week. They will present new consults to the attending physician within 24 hours for routine consults and as soon as possible for emergencies. Fellows will evaluate each patient and make initial recommendations regarding diagnostic tests and treatments. They will make arrangements for studies such as endoscopy, motility testing, biopsies, and other diagnostic procedures. The appropriateness of each procedure will be reviewed with the attending physician before final scheduling decisions are made. Emergency procedures, such as those performed for gastrointestinal bleeding, are carried out by the fellow under the direct supervision of the attending physician. Non-emergent procedures are performed during daytime hours in the GI laboratory under direct attending supervision. Procedure-based evaluations are conducted twice yearly by supervising faculty. Daily attending supervision is available seven days per week, including overnight coverage. Fellows are evaluated continuously throughout the rotation and are also expected to participate in peer evaluation activities.

Unique to our program are the rotations at our affiliate institutions. Fellows complement their experience at Olympia Fields Hospital with rotations at Rush University Medical Center, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Loyola University Medical Center, and University of Chicago Medical Center, as well as affiliated hospitals in Munster and Crown Point, Indiana.

By the end of the three-year program, fellows will complete 18 months of general gastroenterology service, 5 months of hepatology service, and elective rotations in inflammatory bowel disease, motility, pathology, research, and other focused areas. The fellowship experience prepares fellows to evaluate and manage the full spectrum of acute and chronic gastrointestinal disorders they will encounter in future clinical practice.