Pediatric Residency Program

Community Pediatrics Overview

We base the teaching of management of common illnesses in community settings. We emphasize the importance of continuity of care in smaller, community hospitals associated with Mass General Brigham and the Mass General for Children. These rotations represent the continuum of practice from a pediatrician's office, through urgent care management, and on smaller inpatient units that reflect the epidemiology of illness in the community. Four months of ambulatory care rotations complete the teaching of outpatient pediatrics.

Cambridge Hospital

The pediatricians at Cambridge Hospital, a Harvard teaching hospital, are members of our Pediatric Service staff. Pediatric facilities at Cambridge Hospital include a busy emergency room, primary care and subspecialty ambulatory clinics and a 15-bed nursery. The Pediatric Department of Cambridge Hospital runs several neighborhood clinics in the City of Cambridge seeing more than 83,000 ambulatory visits each year. Residents rotating at Cambridge experience an excellent range of outpatient issues critical to the general pediatrician practicing in the community.

Newton-Wellesley Hospital

Newton-Wellesley Hospital provides a base for the Mass General for Children in the western Boston suburbs. Residents rotating at NWH residents manage an inpatient unit under the supervision of attending hospitalists and community pediatricians. The rotation at Newton Wellesley focuses on general inpatient pediatrics in the community.

Continuity Clinics

Residents deepen their experience in primary care by acting as primary care physicians one-half day per week for patients in a continuity clinic. During the ambulatory care rotations, residents attend their continuity clinic for at least five half-day sessions. We base our continuity sites at community health centers associated with MGH or Cambridge Hospital, or at practices affiliated with MGH, or Newton-Wellesley Hospital. This provides residents a unique opportunity to function as primary care pediatricians in their patients’ communities. Residents develop their own panel of patients and function as their patients’ primary caregiver.