Pediatric Hospital Medicine Fellowship

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 Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital might be just what you are looking for:

• Our daily commitment to fellowship educational and programmatic excellence
• The strong QI and patient safety infrastructure that drives care in Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital
• 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 PHM Core Content topics. The Pediatrics and Medicine/Pediatrics residencies here have a total of 24 residents/year, which affords fellows great team leadership, mentorship and teaching opportunities. We have 15 specialized fellowship electives for you to choose from, and our affiliation with Michigan State University 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 2020 - 2021, and has over 300 pediatric physicians in 50 different specialties. Finally, our hospitalist faculty group is 18 members strong, with diverse clinical and research interests. 

QI/Patient Safety/Process Improvement
Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital is the home of our amazing” i-Hub” (improvement hub), a physical space where quality, safety and process improvement specialists are co-located, to facilitate better and faster high impact improvement work. Pediatric hospital medicine fellows are involved in this process from the time of matriculation and have become a valued part of the i-Hub team. 

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 healthcare settings, which 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 are institutional mandates we take very seriously. If you were a fly on the wall here on any particular day, you would see the sense of joy, cohesion, energy and fun that exists in our group, the fellowship, and children’s hospital. Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital is a great place to be! Finally, while most of you have likely never visited Grand Rapids, we completely love our city, which in 2018 was voted the 12th best place to live in the U.S. by U.S. News and World Report. a haven for foodies, outdoor adventure and so much more (and if you’ve never seen the beaches of Lake Michigan, you haven’t really lived!). 

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

Sincerely,
Jeri and Brett 

From the Senior Fellows

With the exception of the community hospital medicine rotation, all fellowship training occurs at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital, 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. Spectrum Health is home to 31 ACGME-accredited residency and fellowship programs in partnership with Michigan State University College of Human Medicine.

Fellowship Rotational Curriculum

One block community hospital medicine at Lakeland Hospital

The curriculum in year two consists of:

• Five blocks electives
• Four blocks scholarly activity/research
• Two blocks hospital medicine at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital
• One block neonatal medicine
• One block sedation
• Four weeks for vacation/conference

• infectious disease with antibiotic stewardship
• pediatric emergency medicine
• palliative care/pain management
• care/pain management
• child abuse and neglect
• nephrology
• pulmonology
• toxicology
• pediatric surgery
• genetics and metabolism
• global health
• hospital administration and leadership
• pediatric physical medicine & rehabilitation
• the business of medicine
• inpatient child psychiatry
• the option to design your own elective

PHM fellowships participate in the NRMP match, but not through ERAS.  There is a common fellowship application used by all programs that you send to the programs you are interested in applying to.

Spectrum Health 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.