MercyOne Des Moines-PHC Consortium Program

Program Identity & Fit

MercyOne Des Moines/PHC Consortium is a community-based, tertiary-referral internal medicine program anchored by a large downtown Level II trauma/Primary Stroke Center hospital and a continuity clinic embedded in a Federally Qualified Health Center serving a socioeconomically diverse, safety-net population. The program runs dual tracks-a 10-resident Categorical Track oriented toward subspecialty fellowship and hospitalist careers, and a 3-resident Primary Care Track with dedicated ambulatory rotations (obesity medicine, sleep, women's health) for outpatient-focused careers-reflecting a structural commitment to individualized career pathways rather than a single mold. Scholarly activity is resident-driven and visible (regular case reports and abstracts at ACP, CHEST, SHM, and subspecialty society meetings, plus a required PGY-2 QI project), and close faculty relationships with fellowship-trained subspecialists and a growing in-house cardiology fellowship support residents pursuing competitive fellowships (cardiology, GI, heme/onc, pulm/critical care, nephrology, endocrine, ID, rheum, geriatrics, sleep). Distinctive features include no 24-hour call, customizable schedules built around individual career goals, and an explicit "family-like," independence-preparing culture.