Pediatric hospital medicine fellowship

Welcome and thank you for your interest in the Corewell Health Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital/Michigan State University Pediatric Hospital Medicine Fellowship. Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital has made a national name for itself in the world of pediatric quality improvement and patient safety. We are located in Grand Rapids, Michigan, one of the most enjoyable and fastest growing cities in the Midwest.

The fellowship offers complete clinical, educational and scholarly programs in our state-of-the-art, freestanding children’s hospital. We hope the following information is helpful to you and thank you for considering us for your fellowship training. If you are an internal medicine/pediatrics resident, we can offer you time as an adult hospitalist during your fellowship elective time. Several of our hospitalists are internal medicine/pediatrics trained and continue to work in the adult world. Please do not hesitate to inquire more about this!

Congratulations on choosing to pursue a fellowship in the wonderful world of pediatric hospital medicine! As you think about what is important to you in a fellowship, we would like to highlight a few reasons the program at Corewell Health Helen DeVos Children's Hospital (part of Corewell Health Grand Rapids Hospitals) might be just what you are looking for:

• Our daily commitment to fellowship educational and programmatic excellence
• The strong QI and patient safety initiatives that drive patient care
• Our incredible institutional and programmatic work to reduce power gradients and nurture the culture of collegial teamwork with colleagues who feel more like family members

Excellence

Our fellowship program was one of only four in the U.S. to receive initial certification by the ACGME in January of 2020. As a fellow here, you will receive a robust didactic curriculum in research, QI, Patient Safety, Process Improvement and all pediatric hospital medicine core content topics. Our pediatrics and internal medicine/pediatrics residencies have a total of 24 residents/year along with two child neurology residents/year in their first two years. This affords fellows great team leadership, mentorship and teaching opportunities. We have 17 specialized fellowship electives for you to choose from, we continue to add more each year based on our fellows’ interests! We are affiliated with Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, which provides regular medical student teaching and mentorship opportunities. Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital has been in the U.S. News and World Report Top 50 for multiple successive years, including 2023-2024, and has over 300 pediatric physicians in 50 different specialties. Finally, our hospitalist faculty group is 24 members strong including two nurse practitioners, with diverse clinical and research interests.

QI/patient safety/process improvement

Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital’s vision is to be the one of the top children’s hospitals in the nation and we currently rank third in Michigan and #17 in the Midwest. This drive for excellence has created a significant culture around quality/process improvement and patient safety. Our fellows have been integrated into this culture, and in only six years of our fellowship, they have made meaningful impact within our hospital system and community while also being recognized on both the state and national level. These projects include improvement around interpretation services, addiction medicine and neurosurgical co-management. We are also lucky to have the Corewell Health Director of Quality Improvement and Patient Safety as one of our pediatric hospital medicine partners, so we have easy access to QI and patient safety education along with mentorship for QI projects!

Culture

Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital is the home of the “Call Me Bob” campaign, whereby all staff are encouraged to call each other by our first names. This has reduced the power gradient and sense of hierarchy that exists in many health care settings. It allows for better teamwork, more collaboration and a sense that work is a great place to be. We have robust initiatives in wellness and diversity that exist not just in the fellowship but across the institution as well. If you were a fly on the wall here on any day, you would see the sense of joy, cohesion, energy and fun that exists in our group, the fellowship program and the hospital. Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital is a great place to be!

Finally, while some of you have likely never visited Grand Rapids, we completely love our city. It truly is a “hidden gem”, and the numbers support our opinions: Grand Rapids’ 2023 national rankings include #2 Most Beautiful and Affordable Cities to Live in the U.S., #2 Best Place to Live in Michigan, #9 US Cities Offering the Most Bang for Your Buck, #10 Cities for Young Female Professionals, #14 Best Places to Live for Quality of Life, and so many more!

We look forward to meeting you virtually and sharing all that our fellowship, hospital and city have to offer!

Sincerely,
Brett Leingang, MD (Program Director), and Sheila Waslawski, MD (Associate Program Director)

Welcome to the Corewell Health Helen DeVos Children’s/Michigan State University Pediatric Hospital Medicine Fellowship program! As you start the next steps of your career, we hope our tight-knit PHM family can be part of your journey! Whether your niche is research, QI, patient safety, medical education or advocacy, we can cultivate your interests for the next two years. Plus, you get to do it in our lively town of Grand Rapids where there is no shortage of breweries, restaurants, parks, hikes and lakes to explore!

Sincerely,
Darya Falamarzi, MD, and Simi George, MD

Except for the community hospital medicine rotation, all fellowship training occurs at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital (part of Corewell Health Grand Rapids Hospitals), a 240 bed freestanding children’s hospital with more than 9,100 inpatient, 2,200 pediatric intensive care and 1,400 neonatal intensive care admissions and more than 56,000 pediatric emergency department visits annually. Corewell Health in West Michigan is home to 37 ACGME-accredited residency and fellowship programs in partnership with Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. Read our program aims.

Scholarly activity

Fellows must complete and present at least one major scholarly project in patient quality/safety. In practice, our fellows are involved in multiple scholarly projects during their two years here, including clinical research and additional quality work. Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital has a commitment to excellence regarding patient safety, so our fellow’s QI projects are very well respected and welcomed. In addition, fellows have great research oversight and mentorship by one of our core faculty members, including our partner who chairs the scholarly oversight committee who has a tremendous amount of experience in research. Many members of the Corewell Health in West Michigan hospitalist group are involved in scholarly work, so there is no shortage of ideas or mentors for you!

Examples of current and past fellow scholarly projects include:

Fellow wellness

Part of wellness involves being empowered to have a voice in the running of the fellowship, and that is hugely important in our program. Your opinion will be sought out on all aspects of your fellowship experience, with the commitment of continuous quality improvement by all of us at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital! In addition, there is an enormous focus on resident/fellow wellness at Corewell Health in West Michigan, and fellows can be involved via participation in the many events throughout the year, or as leaders, including resident/fellow wellness committee, diversity council and housestaff council. Fellows also have access to Encompass, an employee assistance program which offers a variety of assessment and counseling services, provided free of charge and is available 24/7/365.

Mentorship

You will love the overall culture at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital, which is warm and welcoming, and we also work to pair you with mentors who act as advisors, coaches and guides during your fellowship and beyond. In addition, our hospitalist group is committed to celebrating life outside the hospital, too, and we have regular get-togethers that you’ll love being a part of.

ACGME-accredited Pediatric hospital medicine fellowships participate in the NRMP match and applications are processed through ERAS. 2023 Pediatric hospital medicine fellowship application timeline:

• August 2024: Application review and interview invites begin!
• September 2024: NRMP Match opens
• October 2024: Rank Order Entry List opens
• December 2024: Rank Order List Certification due
• December 2024: Match Day, 12:00 PM EST

For more information on our program, contact Andrea Prins, program coordinator.

Corewell Health in West Michigan provides a comprehensive and very competitive benefits package for our residents, staff and their families. In addition, our program provides educational monies to support your ongoing education. Download our salary and benefits document to learn more.