Family Medicine Residency
St. Joseph’s Family Medicine Residency is the largest family medicine residency program in the Northeast. It is an unopposed family medicine residency program, which allows for hands-on experience and expedited personal and professional growth.
Mission Statement:
St. Joseph’s Health is part of Trinity Health, a Catholic national health care system located in Livonia, Michigan. We, St Joseph’s Health and Trinity Health, serve together in the spirit of the Gospel as a compassionate and transforming healing presence within our communities. St. Joseph’s has been an innovative leader in health care since our founding in 1869 as the first hospital open to the public in the city of Syracuse. Offering primary, specialty and home care, an award winning hospital, and collaboration with community partners, St. Joseph’s Health advances the well-being of the communities we serve through an expanding range of services to ensure our patients achieve optimum long-term health. The role of the residency program and Medical Education is to prepare our graduates to be able to provide excellent medical care to our patients in whatever setting they choose for practice. Residents gain their expertise and career advancement while providing clinical care to a diverse population that is medically, psych-socially, and economically challenged.
Program Overview
St. Joseph’s Family Medicine Residency seeks to blend the primary care orientation of a community hospital with the academic and educational resources of a major medical university. Our goal is to produce strong clinicians who are capable of delivering high-quality primary care in any setting — from rural to suburban to inner-city practice locations. Residents experience an excellent balance of ambulatory and inpatient medicine, didactic and clinical experiences, and medical and biopsychosocial patient care. Strong emphasis is placed on population health and supported by a diverse community of patients.
St. Joseph’s Family Medicine Residency is the largest family medicine residency program in the Northeast. It is an unopposed family medicine residency program, which allows for hands-on experience and expedited personal and professional growth.
Extensive Procedural Training Joint injections Colposcopy Endometrial biopsy Minor skin surgery Skin Biopsies/Procedures Suturing and Laceration Repair
Flexibility of a Large Program
Resident input in scheduling, sequencing rotations and vacations
Four weeks of vacation permitted each year with weekends free on both sides of the vacation week
Experience in couples’ match
Established maternity and paternity policies
Away electives permitted and available per ABFM guidelines
Responsiveness to residents’ personal needs
Salary & Benefits
Resident Salary (effective 7/1/25)
PGY1: $68,788
PGY2: $73,509
PGY3: $76,643
Benefits
St. Joseph’s Family Medicine Residency offers competitive benefits for its residents.
- Four weeks annual paid vacation per year — with weekends on both sides
Professional Liability Insurance: Residents are covered by the hospital’s professional liability insurance while performing duties within the scope of their medical education. - Comprehensive insurance package with three medical plan options, two dental plan options and two vision plan options. You’ll also enjoy a lower deductible, copay and coinsurance when you use St. Joseph’s or Trinity Health facilities and aligned providers. Plus, you will be eligible for basic life and accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D) insurance provided by Trinity Health and voluntary (colleague paid) options for supplemental life, supplemental AD&D and dependent life. Residents are eligible for 403B retirement accounts with employer match.
- Relocation allowance: PGY1 Residents who have matched and are beginning Residency at St. Joseph’s on July 1 are eligible for up to $1000 in moving expenses (depending on distance of relocation). The resident must be relocating to the Syracuse area and must provide valid receipts. The moving expenses are a taxable expense.
- CME stipend to cover expenses such as conferences, study materials, etc.
- Access to St. Joseph’s Hospital’s Employee-only Fitness Center (free of charge)
- Professional Membership: AAFP Membership is provided for all Family Medicine residents
First Year
Your first year of residency emphasizes the inpatient experience with a wide variety of exposure, from obstetrics to pediatrics, surgery, anesthesia and more. Interns spend one to two half days per week, regardless of rotation, seeing their continuity patients in the Family Medicine Center.
| Medicine Teaching Service (IP) | Family Medicine Teaching Service (IP) |
| Night Float (IP) | Family Medicine Center |
| Elective | GYN/Women’s Health |
| Obstetrics (IP) x2 | NICU/Nursery |
| Ambulatory Pediatrics | Surgery |
| Inpatient Pediatrics | Geriatrics |
Second Year
As you move into your second year as a resident you’ll take on more clinical responsibilities and continue to enhance your decision-making skills. Residents participate in four months of inpatient medicine. During this unique experience, you serve as the primary physician for your patients. You’ll have the opportunity to manage your own inpatient service under the supervision of an attending physician. In addition, you’ll spend another two to three half days per week in the Family Medicine Center.
| Medicine Teaching Service (IP) x3 | ICU |
| CNY Family Care/Palliative Care | Behavioral Health |
| Elective x2 | Obstetrics (IP) |
| Emergency Department | Ambulatory Specialists - Pediatrics |
Third Year
During your third year as a resident, you will have a significant role in teaching and supervising junior residents. You are directly responsibility for leading the Medicine Teaching Service and Family Medicine Inpatient Teaching Service. Office efficiency and management are also priorities. Office time increases to four half days per week; however, call is limited. During your third-year, all residents attend weekly conferences to hone job-hunting skills and prepare to transition to life after residency.
| Medicine Teaching Service (IP) | Family Medicine Teaching Service (IP) |
| Night Float (IP) | Cross Coverage (IP) |
| Elective x3 | Family Medicine Center x2 |
| Community Medicine | Dermatology |
| Pediatric ED | Orthopedics |
Educational Tracks
At St. Joseph’s Health Hospital, we offer educational areas of focus tracks. These tracks allow residents to hone their skills in a number of different environments, ranging from Global Health to Obstetrics, preparing them to pursue careers in specific areas of medicine. The mentorship of experienced professionals coupled with hands-on patient care and additional elective coursework allows residents to gain the knowledge and confidence they need to succeed in their respective fields.
Sports Medicine
American Medical Society of Sports Medicine guidance. For further information, please visit: amssm.org
GOALS: To prepare residents with an interest in sports medicine for future career or fellowship. In addition to becoming a well-rounded primary care physician, interested residents will develop an understanding of primary care sports medicine. By completing, residents will exceed core requirements in orthopedics and sports medicine during residency, develop a strong foundation in sports medicine in preparation for their future careers or fellowship, and be able to provide a portfolio demonstrating competencies in Sports Medicine. Below curriculum is in addition to CORE Family Medicine curriculum and rotations. Residents must be in good standing.
Hospitalist
Lays the foundation to create an outstanding hospitalist, it also challenges participants to take leadership in projects that improve quality, patient safety, patient experience, high-value care, and hospital efficiency. The experience includes:
- Three months of inpatient medicine in the first year, four months in the second year, and three months in the third year
- Additional electives in palliative care, ICU medicine, and various internal medicine specialties
- Obstetrics/Women’s Health
Women's Health
Curriculum and coursework include:
- A selection of additional electives:
- Colposcopy experience: Become proficient in colposcopy, culminating in readiness to take the colposcopy exam and become certified
- Experience with an attending physician, Stephen Hoag, MD, and the residency faculty working in an office with GYN-consult patients to further enhance skills in women's health issues
- Opportunities for teaching GYN skills and lectures, as well as opportunities for writing during the year
- Flexibility to pursue individual interests
Opportunities
In addition to the benefits of being in a community hospital, St. Joseph's residents and faculty are also affiliated with the Department of Family Medicine at SUNY Upstate Medical University. This relationship allows ample opportunity to serve as clinical faculty for second-, third-, and fourth-year medical students, as well as participate in active research.
Acting Internship in Family Medicine
This elective is open to all fourth-year medical students, from SUNY Upstate, Ross University, St. George’s University and other medical schools. The goal is to experience what Family Medicine Residency is all about by participating as a team member of the Family Medicine Inpatient Teaching Service. The acting intern functions as a PGY1.
Practice of Medicine
This is the first-year medical student course at SUNY Upstate that provides the foundation for history taking, physical exam and differential diagnosis skills. Third-year family medicine residents have the opportunity to hone their teaching ability by working with faculty to instruct medical students in this setting.
Family Medicine Student Organization (FMSO)
Faculty serve as advisors to the FMSO at SUNY Upstate, and family medicine residents organize and run medical student workshops (e.g., casting clinic, joint injection clinic, GYN procedures clinic).
I chose the St. Joseph’s Family Medicine Residency for its array of unopposed experiences. You do not have to fight the OB residents for deliveries or the emergency medicine residents for codes, procedures or acute care experience. After three years of residency, you are a confident physician. The learning environment at St. Joseph’s is positive and constructive. Attendings are invested in the development of their resident both professionally and personally. It is a testament to the program that many of the faculty was trained at St. Joseph’s and stayed there to practice.
— Vanessa Lalley-Demong, D.O., Class of 2013
Family Medicine Center
More than 4,000 families in Syracuse and surrounding communities receive their health care — pediatrics to geriatrics and much of what comes between — from the residents at the Family Medicine Center. Through the Family Medicine Center experience, our program is committed to the dual mission of providing patients with professional, high-quality care and as well as our house staff with an exceptional learning experience. Each resident is assigned a panel of patients to follow throughout the three years, providing continuity of care to these individuals and families.
The Family Medicine Center is located on the St. Joseph’s Health Hospital campus — a convenient location for residents. It is an elite Level 3 NCQA patient-centered medical home that emphasizes care coordination and communication to transform primary care into a patient-centered experience.
At St. Joseph’s Family Medicine Center, a large emphasis is placed on the importance of population health. With a geographically diverse, refugee-rich community, residents are exposed to a number of different health outcomes, as well as a calculated approach to care that aims to address and influence these outcomes from a biopsychosocial perspective.
Multidisciplinary Approach
The FMC has multiple different disciplines providing patient care and resident education
Full-time social worker to help with non-medical needs
Full-time faculty member who provides both education and behavioral health services
Full-time Pharmacist and Pharmacy Tech available for medication reviews and consultations for residents
Osteopathic Medicine
The OMT Clinic allows osteopathic physicians to build on their training from medical school, and exposes allopathically trained (MD) physicians to this type of treatment
Two Osteopathic physicians on faculty
The OMT clinic is conveniently located within the Family Medicine Center
Technology
The Family Medicine Center is constantly streamlining its care through the use and implementation of technology including POCUS and dermoscopy.
EMR: St. Joseph’s Health uses EPIC Electronic Medical Records to streamline care, reduce errors and better communicate patient information between ambulatory and inpatient facilities.
Faculty
The St. Joseph’s Family Medicine Residency program offers a diverse and well-trained faculty. In addition, all members have private practices, 10 of which practice obstetrics.
Because each member of the family medicine residency has an area of expertise, the family medicine residency is able to create a robust training environment for its residents. Adjunct faculty members from both the community and Upstate Medical University further strengthen that environment by lending their time and experience to precepting residents in the Family Medicine Center.
All faculty members are board certified in family medicine, and many serve on hospital committees and/or participate in state and national family medicine professional associations.
Stephen Hoag, M.D.
Residency Program Director
Medical School: Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
Residency: Naval Hospital Jacksonville
Special Interests: Full scope, office procedures
Melissa Arthur, Ph.D., LMFT
Director of Behavioral Science
Graduate Education: Syracuse University, Ph.D., M.S.W and M.A. in Marriage and Family Therapy
Special Interests: Integration of biopsychosocial model
Melissa Arthur, Ph.D., LMFT
Director of Behavioral Science
Graduate Education: Syracuse University, Ph.D., M.S.W and M.A. in Marriage and Family Therapy
Special Interests: Integration of biopsychosocial model
Melissa Arthur, Ph.D., LMFT
Director of Behavioral Science
Graduate Education: Syracuse University, Ph.D., M.S.W and M.A. in Marriage and Family Therapy
Special Interests: Integration of biopsychosocial model
Melissa Arthur, Ph.D., LMFT
Director of Behavioral Science
Graduate Education: Syracuse University, Ph.D., M.S.W and M.A. in Marriage and Family Therapy
Special Interests: Integration of biopsychosocial model