Hospitalist Training Program

Rotations and Electives

Hospital Medicine Preceptorship : High-yield educational experience where the resident runs their own inpatient medicine team, similar to a community medicine model. This is paired with structured learning around the role of physicians in the rapidly changing healthcare environment, including coaching on individual clinical efficiency, understanding the role of policy on physician practice, and “how hospitals work.” 

Medicine Consult, Perioperative Medicine, and Neurology Stroke : Co-management of orthopedic surgery patients and medicine consultation to surgical teams, with the goal of understanding the delivery of interdisciplinary care, as well as exposure to the inpatient stroke team and the Mobile Stroke Unit.  

Acute Care for the Elderly (ACE): An accountable care unit model caring for our geriatric inpatient population – an intimate, interprofessional team focused on care of the elderly. This is in place of an outpatient geriatrics rotation.  

Palliative Care and Home Health & Hospice: Hands-on rotation with the inpatient palliative care team at University Hospital, with an opportunity to see patients receiving home hospice services. 

Oncology: A medical oncology rotation caring for inpatients with cancer and medical complications, co-staffed by hospitalists and oncology faculty.  

Point of Care Ultrasound: Two-week experience led by a POCUS-trained faculty member to gain skills and confidence with using point of care ultrasound. Residents also learn how to incorporate POCUS findings with clinical decision making.  

Transitions of Care: Outpatient elective at Denver Health focused on examining the entire transition of care from a hospitalized patient to the outpatient setting, which includes time with the multidisciplinary team involved in transitions, a transitions of care clinic, and didactics.  

Clinic Month HTP Half-day Experiences

Virtual Health: Exposure to the Virtual Health Center, an innovative program to deliver medical services remotely through telehealth technology.  

Docline: Observe how the transfer center functions at a quaternary referral center, managing all outside hospital transfers and direct admissions to the University Hospital by spending time in the transfer center with the nurse managers and listen in to outside hospital transfer calls.  

Tele-stroke: Join neurologists electronically as they conduct tele-stroke assessments for remote hospitals in Colorado to see the other side of the tele stroke consult.  

Addiction Medicine: Join an inpatient team offering support and medication assisted treatment (suboxone, methadone) to patients struggling with opioid use disorder and other addictions.  

Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS): Additional time with POCUS experts practicing POCUS skills.  

Home Health Care and Hospice: Spend time with a home health care nurse, home health care physical therapist, and home hospice nurse to see how home care is delivered and how to improve the hospital to home health transition.  

Non-Clinical Curriculum

Longitudinal Didactic Curriculum: Monthly didactics on understanding health systems and health system redesign, patient safety, quality improvement and healthcare finance that complement clinical rotations and build leadership skills. 

Career Development: Focused mentorship from our core faculty across all three clinical sites. Career roundtable featuring hospitalists from around the Denver metro area to discuss their different hospital medicine groups. Mock interviews, CV and cover letter review.  

Quality and Systems Improvement: Experiential project work with focused didactics on how to enact QI, with a team-based project aligning with health system initiatives and priorities. Exposure to local leadership, and interdisciplinary partnership. Opportunity for local and national presentations, scholarly work, and involvement in local change efforts. 

Bottom Line Journal Club: Monthly journal club covering clinical and systems topics with guest speakers from local thought leaders. 

Social Events: Retreat to the mountains, holiday event, end of the year welcome/farewell event, and nights out during the year. 

Applications for internship will be accepted only through the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) until 10/21/2021. 

Our required application materials are the same as ERAS (Transcript, Chairman's Letter, two Letters of Recommendation, USMLE Transcript, Personal Statement, etc). 

The NMRP number is: Internal Medicine-Hospitalist (NRMP 1076140C1). This is a separate NMRP number from the Categorical program.  

HTP Days will be November 15, December 3, December 17, and January 10.

For questions regarding the HTP, please contact Program Manager at DHM-Education@ucdenver.edu. 

Hi, future CU internal medicine residents! One of the aspects of CU’s internal medicine program that attracted me initially, and ultimately made me rank the program as my first choice, was the option to join the hospitalist training program. When  I was applying to residency, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to  go into pulm/CC or hospitalist medicine, but knew that I wanted a program which would allow me to gain more experience with hospital-based medicine, provide leadership and mentorship opportunities specific to inpatient care, and allow me to learn more about quality improvement, high-value health care, and patient safety. I joined the HTP as an intern and have had access to incredible mentorship, electives, and leadership opportunities since that time. An unexpected benefit was my co-residents  in the HTP; being part of a smaller cohort within a large residency program provided me with both peer mentors and with friends who have made residency incredibly fun (which, honestly, is equally important when you’re spending the majority of your life for three years with the same people).  Please feel free to reach out if you have any specific questions!

- Michelle Knees, Class of 2021

Hello future HTP residents! There are so many reasons I chose to come to Colorado for residency, but the most specific was joining the HTP. Amidst all the excellent internal medicine residency programs out there, it was so nice to find one that featured such a robust and time-tested program to train future leaders in hospital medicine. The HTP is truly a family within our greater internal medicine residency program family. With us, you will have great mentors in every niche of hospital medicine, protected experiences inside and outside of the hospital, and the flexibility in your training to become the physician you dream of becoming. Most importantly, the people of the HTP are some of the best you’ll ever meet.    I look forward to talking with you, answering any questions you have, and hopefully seeing you out here in Colorado!

- Jason John, Class of 2021

"Having been an Attending for just 4.5 months, I can say that the transition was so much easier having done HTP. I started at the same time as 3 other new graduates and feel well ahead of them in regards to billing, efficiency, QI work and patient volumes -which I owe to the HTP. And just my two cents, never get rid of the consultative medicine month. That knowledge has been incredibly valuable!"

-Matt Hansen, MD, ​Class of 2014

“I can't speak higher of my experiences in the Hospitalist Training Track.... it gave me a huge leg up to start fellowship in terms of experiences with QI as well as with consultative medicine.... something I definitely appreciated when I started here.”

- Matthew Stotts, MD, Class of 2013

Program Directors

Emily Gottenborg, MD, is  an Assistant Professor within the Division of Hospital Medicine, Department of Medicine, and has a passion in teaching the next generation of leaders in hospital medicine and healthcare system improvement.
She is the Co-Director of the Hospitalist Training Program, and is faculty within the Institute of Healthcare Quality, Safety, and Efficiency. Dr. Gottenborg came to Colorado in 2014, and enjoys the mountain lifestyle with her 3 children, husband, and Berner, Bruiser. 

Julia Limes, MD,  was born and raised in Denver and returned to complete medical school at the University of Colorado after attending TCU for undergrad. She completed her residency and chief residency here at the University of Colorado and has been on faculty with the Hospital Medicine Division since finishing her training.
Her academic interests include patient care handoffs, transitions of care, and residency operations. She is the site director for the residency at University of Colorado Hospital and co-directs the Hospitalist Training Program. Outside of work, she enjoys running, hiking, traveling, and cheering on the Denver sports teams.