Primary Care at Cooper University Health Care
Cooper Primary care includes a team of dedicated family medicine physicians, internal medicine physicians, and advance practice providers in 20 different locations serving communities in south and central New Jersey. Throughout the residency, each resident will be paired with a family physician mentor working at a community site. This allows our residents to explore the variety of different locations, communities and experiences that family medicine contains. That mentor will continue throughout their three years to ensure that our residents get mentors with diverse career paths within family medicine.
Cooper University Health Care (CUHC)
Cooper is a 635-bed acute care academic medical center, serving southern New Jersey and the Delaware Valley. Cooper University Hospital is the clinical campus of Cooper Medical School of Rowan University and offers training programs for medical students, residents, fellows, and nurses in a variety of specialties. The Trauma Center at Cooper University Hospital was established in 1982 and is one of only three New Jersey State-Designated Level I Trauma Centers verified by the American College of Surgeons, the highest national recognition possible. Cooper serves as the regional Trauma Center for southern New Jersey including Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, Mercer, Ocean and Salem counties and acts as a resource for the Level II Trauma Centers in our region. On average, Cooper admits nearly 3,500 trauma patients each year, making it the busiest center in New Jersey. In addition, Cooper University Hospital serves as southern New Jersey’s major tertiary care referral hospital for specialized services.
ICU at Cooper University Health Care
Cooper University Hospital has a state-of-the-art 30-bed medical intensive care unit (ICU) staffed by nationally and internationally renowned academic intensivists. Our ICU is a tertiary referral center for the entire South Jersey region, which means that we take care of a complex and diverse population of critically ill patients. The unit is multidisciplinary—Family Medicine Residents work alongside residents from Internal Medicine, Emergency Medicine and Anesthesia—to provide the most advanced care to critically ill patients afflicted by septic shock, respiratory failure, and other medical emergencies.
ER at Cooper University Health Care
Cooper’s Emergency Department (ED) in Camden has an annual census of approximately 80,000 patients, of which more than 20% are pediatric patients. More than 20% of our patients are triaged with a high acuity level and approximately 25% are admitted to the hospital, making Cooper ED acuity high relative to other sites. To meet the demands of increasing patient volume, Cooper has expanded the size of its ED and now has a 42-bed, state-of-the-art facility. This experience will ensure our residents gain confidence with managing emergency care. The residents will also benefit from working alongside residents from every department in Cooper University Health Care.
Pediatrics: Children’s Regional Hospital at Cooper and Cooper Pediatrics
Children’s Regional Hospital at Cooper will provide you with a balanced exposure to both primary care pediatrics and the pediatric subspecialties. They not only have a well-established role as a regional center for pediatric tertiary care, but also have a long-standing commitment as primary caregivers to children in the city of Camden.
Their role as a regional tertiary referral center brings a diversified patient mix, drawing patients from a 10-county area that includes urban, suburban, rural, and resort communities. Many pediatric programs have been designated by the NJ State Department of Health as the regional providers of their respective services. In addition, many of their divisions provide the only subspecialists of their kind practicing full-time in southern New Jersey. Cooper’s Level I Trauma Center is the only state-designated trauma center in the region verified as a Pediatric Trauma Center by the American College of Surgeons. They are also one of only two regional perinatal centers in the seven southern-most counties of New Jersey.
Their current inpatient facilities include 56 neonatal/infant beds: 23 in the intensive care nursery, 12 in the intermediate care nursery, and 24 for newborns who room in with their mothers. In addition, there are 38 beds for children: 32 for general pediatric medical and surgical care and six for pediatric intensive care.
Their current outpatient facilities include four suburban sites in addition to the ambulatory center located on the Camden campus.
OB/GYN at Cooper University Health Care
The OB/GYN experience is a collaboration with the amazing OB/GYN department at Cooper University Health Care. Their L&D floor has approximately 2,200 to 2,500 deliveries and approximately 4,000 to 5,000 triage visits annually at Cooper University Hospital. Our residents become part of the L&D team during their rotation, sharing responsibilities of the entire floor and attending their didactic sessions. Here they will be supervised by both FMOB and OB/GYN attendings. Longitudinally, our residents attend weekly OB grand rounds as well. The OB/GYN ambulatory experience includes time spent with Cooper University Health Care OB/GYN. Residents will also have the option to get experience in full spectrum family planning training including abortion care.
MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper
In October 2013, MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper opened a new, state-of- the-art, $100 million, and four-story, 103,050 sq. ft. comprehensive cancer center on Cooper’s Health Sciences Campus in Camden to expand access to outstanding cancer care for residents of southern New Jersey and beyond.
The new facility offers expanded programs and services in an environment that fosters a multidisciplinary team approach to medicine. In this dynamic environment, cancer specialists from various medical disciplines (medical oncology, radiation oncology, surgical oncology, gynecologic oncology, and urology) conduct concurrent, complementary clinical sessions, fostering professional interaction and collaboration. Family Medicine residents will work alongside specialists, residents, and fellows to gain experience in the many services offered at MD Anderson at Cooper.
Longitudinal Geriatric Experience
Residents will get a geriatric experience through monthly visits to a long-term care facility during their second and third years. They will also get a concentrated block working with dedicated geriatricians at a sub-acute rehab and long term care facility close to Cooper University Health Care.
Addiction Medicine
Our program has a wealth of experience in managing substance use disorder. They will have a concentrated experience with the ability to do more electives in Cooper’s Center for Healing, which houses ambulatory treatment programs including group and individual appointments with a multidisciplinary team. Residents will also have the opportunity to work on the inpatient addiction service and consult team with fellows and attendings. This interdisciplinary team includes behavioral health, social work, advanced practice providers, nurses, and attendings from psychiatry, emergency medicine, and family medicine.
Urgent Care
We believe residents should get to experience all possible career paths for family medicine physicians. Our urgent care block allows residents to explore this option while learning management of urgent conditions such as acute pain, URIs, sprains, fractures, lacerations, and abscess management, among other common diagnoses