About the General Medicine Clinic
The General Medicine Clinic (GMC) is the adult primary care clinic at San Francisco General Hospital (SFGH). It is a vital part of both San Francisco's safety net system and the University of California, San Francisco's (UCSF) School of Medicine. The mission of the GMC is to provide comprehensive, high quality primary care services to adults, and to provide an excellent teaching environment for students and residents at UCSF.
During the 2008-2009 academic year, the clinic provided more than 27,000 patient visits to more than 6,000 individual patients, the majority of whom were low-income people with complex medical conditions. GMC is staffed by UCSF faculty from the SFGH Division of General Internal Medicine and UCSF Internal Medicine residents from the Primary Care and Categorical Residency Programs. Nurse practitioner, nursing, social work, nutrition, and clerical staff are provided by SFGH. Faculty, residents, and students from the UCSF and Touro Schools of Pharmacy provide a range of pharmacist services.
GMC uses an electronic health record that is integrated with hospital data, and includes notes, medications, allergies, laboratory and diagnostic studies, as well as an electronic referral and consultation system.
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Clinic services
General Medicine Clinic patients select or are assigned to a Primary Care Provider to ensure both continuity of care and the opportunity for residents to develop longitudinal relationships with patients. At the same time, in order to support our residents in caring for their patients, we use a team model of care that includes a practice partner, a primary attending preceptor, and a resident continuity nurse practitioner.
GMC provides a wide range of services for patients, including primary care, urgent care, telephone advice, nurse triage, nutritional counseling, pharmacist consultation, and social work services. Because nearly 30% of GMC patients have diabetes, the clinic has focused much of its efforts on developing an array of chronic disease management programs including registry support, nurse care management, insulin intensification visits, group visits, and tai chi classes.
As one of the core clinics for Healthy San Francisco, San Francisco's universal access to care program, GMC is working with our sister clinic, the Family Health Center, and multiple specialty services to develop co-management programs to improve the care of diabetes, asthma/COPD, chronic low back pain, and congestive heart failure.
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Hours of Operation
The clinic is open from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. In addition, there are evening clinics on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
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Special Features
Patient Diversity
San Francisco is well known for its cultural and ethnic diversity, and both patients and staff of SFGH/GMC reflect that diversity: 29% of our patients are Latino, 29% Asian Pacific Islander, 19% African-American, 20% White, and 3% other race or ethnicity. Nearly 40% of our patients have a primary language other than English, with Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, Russian, Tagalog and Vietnamese the most commonly encountered languages. GMC has access to state of the art interpreter services through Videoconferencing Medical Interpretation, telephonic interpreters, and when needed, in person interpreters. Many of our staff are also bilingual.
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Excellent Teaching Environment
The General Medicine Clinic has over many years been consistently rated one of the best sites for resident continuity clinics among UCSF residents. While the complexity and pace of patient care can be challenging, attending physicians are available on-site and after-hours to provide consultation and advice as needed. Clinical experience is supplemented by daily pre-clinic conferences that cover a breadth of outpatient medicine topics. GMC is also fortunate in having experienced, dedicated nursing and clinic support staff who facilitate the learning experience for residents.
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Quality Improvement
The General Medicine Clinic has a strong commitment to quality improvement, and welcomes resident and fellow involvement in improving our processes of care. Residents have participated in the implementation of our diabetes registry, in the development of policies and procedures for controlled substance prescribing, and in efforts to improve the rates of preventive health measure use for our patients. GMC provides individualized quality metrics to each primary care provider on a quarterly basis.
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Research
The General Medicine Clinic provides access to clinical and non-clinical data for a diverse patient population. Residents, fellows, and attendings interested in performing research projects involving GMC patients must obtain approval from the GMC Medical Director or Associate Medical Director and other appropriate members of the Division of General Internal Medicine at SFGH. See GMC Research Guidelines.
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