St. Luke’s Regional Medical Center
St. Luke’s Regional Medical Center is a 578-bed tertiary care hospital, particularly recognized for outstanding oncology, cardiology, obstetrics/newborn, and pediatrics services. It is also home to St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital. Residents complete consultation-liaison psychiatry rotations within the hospital, and have the option to complete outpatient rotations in the outpatient psychiatry clinic. St. Luke’s is an active residency training site, where Family Medicine and Internal Medicine residents complete rotations. It is a large health system, with multiple hospitals and over 200 clinics throughout Idaho.
Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center
Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center is a 387-bed tertiary care hospital and is the region’s trauma center. Saint Alphonsus is recognized for its cardiology, orthopedic care, trauma, neurosurgery, radiology, and critical care departments. It is the region’s only Level II Trauma Center and is part of a four-hospital integrated healthcare system. Family Medicine residents do medicine, surgery, and emergency medicine rotations at this hospital. The Saint Alphonsus Behavioral Health service includes 32 inpatient psychiatry beds for adults and children, and an outpatient service with over 11,000 visits per year, offering psychotherapy, psychopharmacology, and addiction treatment services. Psychiatry residents complete an inpatient rotation at St. Alphonsus Behavioral Health Unit, a freestanding inpatient psychiatry unit nearby to the main hospital.
Boise VA Medical Center
The Boise VA Medical Center serves over 70,000 veterans and has established training programs for the University of Washington Medicine and University of Washington Psychiatry training programs, as well as many opportunities for UW medical students. Psychiatry residents can take advantage of a rich array of rotations in outpatient psychiatry, residential substance abuse treatment, crisis intervention, group and family therapy, inpatient, and consultation-liaison psychiatry at the Boise VA. There are opportunities to work with University of Washington medical students on their required psychiatry clerkship, to work with pharmacy residents and students, to work with visiting students and 4th-year students on elective, as well as interactions with social work, counseling, and psychology trainees.
Full Circle Health
The Full Circle Health is a University of Washington-affiliated residency that trains 23 Family Medicine residents per year. Doing business as Full Circle Health, healthcare providers see over 80,000 patients per year. This is a training clinic that provides comprehensive medical and mental health services to under-served populations in Idaho, including OB patients, chronically mentally ill, the refugee clinic and an HIV clinic. Working with interpreters and people of diverse nationalities is common. Psychiatry residents provide outpatient psychiatric consultation to family medicine faculty and residents in this clinic, as part of a team including a psychiatrist, psychologist, and social work staff. Residents also work in the mental health clinic seeing outpatients in continuity care, have psychotherapy patients, and work in a collaborative care framework.
University Health Services at Boise State University
University Health Services at Boise State University provides primary, preventive, and psychiatric care to BSU students and employees. University Health Services is a busy primary care medicine, wellness, and counseling facility that serves the medical and psychological needs of a population of over 20,000 students, faculty, and staff. Residents work under the supervision of an attending psychiatrist and perform intake evaluations, prescribe treatment, and provide follow up care. Psychotherapy training opportunities are also widely available. Residents have the opportunity to work with a multidisciplinary team consisting of primary care providers, psychologists, counselors, and social workers. A weekly meeting with the aforementioned providers serves as an opportunity to learn how a psychiatrist can serve as a team leader and consultant for mental health teams.
Idaho State Correctional Institute
The Idaho State Correctional Institute includes maximum, medium, and minimum security level offenders. The primary clinical site for residents is the reception and diagnostic unit (RDU), which is the entry point for all men entering Idaho’s prison system. Residents have opportunities to perform intakes, work with severe and persistent mentally ill offenders, and gain experience treating patients in a maximum-security setting. Site objectives include learning the diagnostic challenges in correctional settings, understanding legal issues of providing care to inmates, and developing an understanding of the unique pharmacologic barriers in correctional psychiatry. Residents work closely with a board certified forensic psychiatrist.
State Hospital South (SHS)
State Hospital South (SHS) is a 110 bed, Joint Commission-certified state psychiatric hospital located in Blackfoot, Idaho. SHS has three 30 bed general adult units and one 20 bed high-needs adult unit in the Psychiatric Treatment Facility (PTF) that provide care for patients with civil and/or forensic commitments. These units are led by a combination of on-site psychiatrists and psychiatrists who work primarily via telepsychiatry. Four on-site mid-level providers assist the psychiatrists in providing psychiatric care. An on-site board-certified internal medicine doctor oversees the SHS Medical Clinic which provides initial H&P evaluations as well as follow-up medical care for patients. SHS also has Syringa Chalet Skilled Nursing Facility on campus, a 42 bed facility for geriatric patients with serious mental illness which is overseen by the Medical Clinic physician with psychiatric input from a geriatric psychiatrist who works primarily via telepsychiatry.
Idaho civil commitment law affords a one-year commitment to the State Hospital, but most patients are treated successfully and discharged within six weeks. SHS also has a competency restoration program for forensic patients, with a forensic psychologist performing evaluations for the referring court. Residents will be supervised by in-house psychiatrists but will also have the opportunity to learn from the psychiatrists who work remotely, including learning the advantages and challenges of providing care via telepsychiatry technology. Residents will be responsible for evaluating, assessing, and treating patients with a wide array of psychiatric disorders including psychotic disorders, mood disorders, substance abuse, trauma, and other stressor-related disorders, anxiety disorders, impulse control disorders, personality disorders, dementia, and traumatic brain injury. Residents will be provided housing in Pocatello, Idaho (a 20-minute drive from the facility), which will be able to accommodate families and pets as well.
Residents on rotation at SHS will participate in the Thursday didactic schedule through Zoom or Skype. They will be excused from clinical duties to participate.
