University of Missouri School of Medicine, Department of Hospital Medicine offers a 12-month postgraduate PA Fellowship in Hospital Medicine.

Hospitalists are dedicated inpatient care teams and an integral part of most hospitals across the United States. Our fellowship program is designed to develop Physician Assistants who are equipped to thrive on a busy hospitalist service. The program strives to imbue a strong fund of knowledge in adult hospital medicine, which will allow the program graduate to practice in an inpatient setting with a high level of skill and autonomy.

Practicing hospital medicine on one of our PA teams, the learner will admit, treat, and discharge patients with a broad range of complex medical conditions. Physician Assistant Fellows will work alongside our group of experienced hospitalist Physician Assistants and be directly trained and supervised by attending physicians committed to providing clinical education.

Our teaching philosophy

Direct Patient Care

We believe that the best way to learn medicine is to see patients and treat them. With this goal in mind our PA fellow teaching teams work in direct rotation with the medicine resident teaching teams. Using a drip rotation system, our two PA fellow teams and four medicine resident teams take turns, in a “next up” order, receiving patients being admitted or transferred to the hospitalist service. This method ensures a diverse group of complex and challenging patients for which our hospitalist PA fellows have the privilege of providing excellent patient care. PA fellow patient care takes place under watchful guidance of dedicated attending physicians, with bedside rounds and tabletop teaching.

Didactic Learning Opportunities

While direct patient care is our focus, didactic learning opportunities are abundant in our program. These include:

  • Weekly PA Fellow Lecture Series.
  • Weekly Department of Medicine Grand Rounds.
  • Medical Resident Noon Conferences Series.
  • Monthly PA Fellows Journal Club.

Specialty Rotations

To enhance the broad spectrum of knowledge utilized in hospitalist medicine hospitalist PA fellows spend one to two weeks on inpatient specialty service rotations. Working alongside the medical residents, the PA fellows are assigned patients, and are educated by expert attending physicians in the area of specialty.

  • Palliative Care Team
  • Hospitalist Nocturnist Team
  • Infectious Disease Service
  • Cardiology Service
  • Medical Intensive Care Unit
  • Elective Rotation

Hospitalist Division Specialty Services

UM Hospitalist Division includes several specialty services that present additional learning opportunities for interested learners.

Integrated Medicine Unit

  • Twenty-four-bed medical unit that focuses on the needs of patients with both medical and psychiatry conditions.
  • PA-Physician team works closely with providers from Missouri University Psychiatric Center, an inpatient psychiatric hospital, to provide care for this special patient population.

Orthopedic Post-Operative Co-Management Service

  • Collaborating with the orthopedic surgeons and surgical residents at Missouri Orthopaedic Institute, the hospitalist PA-Physician team provides co-management and consult services for inpatients following elective orthopedic surgery.

Hematology/Oncology Team

  • Dedicated hospitalist team serves as the primary admitting service for hematology/oncology patients.
  • Working in conjunction with consulting hematology/oncology physicians, the combines services provide high quality care for the special needs of patients with cancer or hematologic conditions. 

Hospitalist In-patient Consult Service

  • Providing on request additional input for patients admitted to other service lines.

Facilities

Ideally situated to provide ample learning opportunities, University Hospital is a 300-bed facility in Columbia, Missouri. It serves as central Missouri's only Level I trauma center and as a tertiary referral center for much of mid-Missouri. University Hospital is located on the University of Missouri campus, along with its academic partners, the School of Medicine, the Sinclair School of Nursing, and the School of Health Professions. The hospital is located near the center of Mizzou's campus and is in close proximity to Ellis Fischel Cancer Center, Missouri Orthopaedic Institute, and Missouri University Psychiatric Center. As part of an academic medical center, University Hospital is host to many physician residencies, physician fellowship and PA fellowship programs.

Curriculum

Physician Assistant Fellowship in Hospitalist Medicine Curriculum is based on resources from the Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM) Core Competencies and the American College of Physicians (ACP)

Program Leadership

Program Director: Heather Matthews, PA-C, MSPAS

  • Member of the Hospitalist Division Leadership Team
  • Physician Assistant with the University of Missouri Hospitalist Group

Medical Director: Catherine Jones, MD, MS, SFHM

  • Director of the University of Missouri Hospitalist Division
  • Professor of Clinical Medicine
  • Medical Director of Post-Acute Care Team & RUSK Rehabilitation
  • Chairperson for the Hospitalist Division Leadership Team

Faculty Advisor: Syed Hasan Naqvi, MD, MBA

  • Professor & Charles E Mengel Faculty Scholar in Internal Medicine
  • Chief Medical Officer-Inpatient, Missouri University Healthcare (MUHC)
  • Medical Director, Clinical and Translational Science Unit (CTSU)
  • School of Medicine, University of Missouri-Columbia