St Luke's University Hospital Program

Program Identity & Fit

St. Luke's Family Medicine Residency in Bethlehem is a small, community-embedded, university-affiliated program (6 residents/class, 1:3 faculty-to-resident ratio) built around continuity care at Star Community Health, an FQHC-look-alike clinic where residents act as personal physicians from day one. The curriculum is broad-spectrum with strong OB and pediatrics emphasis, a structured osteopathic track (OMT clinic, dual accreditation), longitudinal community medicine (homeless shelter, Hispanic Center, nursing home, home visits, an international medicine trip to Cameroon), and a practice-management thread teaching billing, RVUs and value-based metrics. Scholarly activity is faculty-driven and resident-supported through journal clubs, QI/METRIC projects, and PAFP Research Day presentations rather than hypothesis-driven investigation, and the program sponsors in-house Sports Medicine, Geriatrics, and Hospice & Palliative Medicine fellowships. Graduate outcomes split fairly evenly among community office practice, hospitalist work, academic medicine, and fellowship, with roughly half staying within 50 miles, indicating the program values well-rounded generalists prepared for comprehensive, community-rooted full-spectrum practice over narrow subspecialization.