Bethesda Family Medicine, Department of Family Medicine in the Medical School at the University of Minnesota

Bethesda Family Medicine, built in 1997, is located eight blocks from St. Joseph’s Hospital. The clinic has:

  • 27 spacious exam rooms
  • Three procedure rooms for colposcopy, OB ultrasound, cardiac stress testing, suturing, casting, biopsies, and manipulations
  • Large residents’ workroom and preceptor area with library
  • On-site pharmacy
  • X-ray and lab services
 

We serve a large urban community in St. Paul and see 1,700 new patients yearly with more than 6,000 patient visits annually. Our patient population is diverse—35% Asian, 25% African American, 20% Caucasian, 10% Hispanic, and 10% other.
Ila Harris, PharmD, our on-site clinical pharmacist, co-precepts residents and is available for consultation on patients with complicated medication issues. She sees patients for medication assessment, recommendations, and education. Once a month she lectures to residents on drug therapy topics.  
  Clinic preceptors include the residency faculty and family physicians practicing in the surrounding area. In addition, several graduates from our program enjoy returning to Bethesda Family Medicine to precept on a monthly basis.
Each resident and faculty member is assigned daily to a team of two or three medical staff. The team could include certified medical assistants, LPNs, RNs, x-ray, lab techs, a nurse manager—all well-trained in assisting physicians. They room the patients, provide vitals, give vaccines, check peak flows, perform OB non-stress tests, conduct vision and hearing screening tests, and often interpret for our non-English-speaking patients.  
  The ability to have x-ray on-site and perform many lab tests in-house provides our physicians with accurate and rapid diagnostic results when they need them.
Front office employees make appointments, field phone calls, and check in patients. Same day appointments are always available for patients with acute care concerns.  
  The medical records staff organize patient data and keep the charts up-to-date. We are incorporating EMR to provide timely access to patient records throughout the clinic.
Mike Underwood, RPH, owns and runs Capitol Pharmacy, located in the Bethesda Family Medicine building since 1978. He is a valuable resource for medication information and costs.  

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Last modified on Thursday Mar 06, 2008

This page is located at http://www.med.umn.edu//fm/residency/stjosephs/clinic.html