With the exception of hospitalists and critical care physicians, most internists will spend a substantial portion of their professional life in the outpatient environment.  Even hospitalists and critical care physicians need an understanding of the types of conditions that can be effectively cared for in the outpatient environment so that they can plan for transitioning the care of their patients back to their colleagues in the ambulatory arena.  Thus, training in the outpatient setting is an essential part of an internal medicine residency program.

At OSU, a minimum of 12 months is spent in the ambulatory setting over the three year training program.  Outpatient experiences include the Resident Continuity Clinic, the Columbus Veteran's Administration outpatient facility, numerous primary care subspecialty private practice sites, the Children's Hospital Adolescent and Medicine-Pediatrics practice and a rural community health experience in the neighboring community of Bellefontaine, Ohio.

Although many experiences are focused in one practice site, some electives, such as those in Women's Health, Non-Internal Medicine Surgical Issues (office orthopedics, podiatry, ophthalmology, ENT, etc), and Geriatric Medicine, have residents rotating through a variety of outpatient sites.

In addition to the required outpatient rotations listed above,
residents can schedule outpatient rotations for any elective month