Infectious Disease at UCMC

Posted by Eric Zhao at Sunday, March 25, 2012

How fitting. I've caught an infectious disease on my infectious disease rotation at the University of Chicago Medical Center. My remedy? Lots of water and lots of sleep. Unfortunately, this is not the case with the patients on this service.

University of Chicago Medical Center

Infectious Disease (ID) Consult Team
The team I'm on consists of an 1) attending physician, 2) ID Fellow, 3) medical residents, 4) medical students, 5) ID pharmacist, 6) pharmacy resident, and 7) and yours truly, the pharmacy student. Without fail, other healthcare professionals comment on the size of our team. As a consult team, we cover the entire hospital with answers (hopefully) to anything related to ID. Some examples include what antibiotic to recommend, how to address a bloodstream infection, or how to narrow therapy to specific cultured/suspected bacteria.

Typical Day
8am - 10am Work up patients prior to discussing with my preceptor. Sometimes the list can consists of many patients (high score of 28 in one day!), so you mainly focus on what pertains to ID:

• Reason for consult
• History of Present Illness
• Allergies
• Complete Blood Count (mainly white blood cell count and platelets)
• BUN/Serum Creatinine/Creatinine Clearance
• Antibiotics
• Drug Monitoring (e.g., levels for Vancomycin and aminoglycosides
• Microbe cultures and sensitivities
• Assessment and Plan

Selling this template for $5 to future students on an ID rotation

10am-12pm Discuss patients with preceptor with any concerns or suggestions. Typically, she'll ask how you would narrow therapy or how the vancomycin/aminoglycoside levels look.

12pm-1pm Follow-up with patients and clarify any questions (and lunch)

1pm-3pm Discuss patients with full medical team

3pm-5pm Medical team visits any patients that we want to see, especially new consults.

Mix this schedule in with intermittent topic discussions, ID conferences, and Pharmacy Grand Rounds for a taste of what ID can offer. Now, to get rid of this nagging cough...

-Eric Zhao