Internal and Hospital Medicine
Program Orientation Overview
The Division of Internal and Hospital Medicine (IHM) provides a broad range of services for patients at the Moffitt Cancer Center. These include both inpatient and outpatient services.
An active inpatient "hospitalist" service meets the needs of patients with acute complications, including infections, pulmonary complications, cardiovascular disease and metabolic disorders. Working in conjunction with the cancer subspecialists, IHM coordinates and manages these problems with special experience in how they interact with the patient's oncology care. We maintain an inpatient consultation service to serve our surgical and subspecialty colleagues in caring for patients with medical illnesses outside the scope of their area of practice.
Moffitt's Direct Referral Center (DRC) is also overseen by IHM. This area provides urgent care for Moffitt outpatients upon referral by their primary Moffitt cancer specialist. Should an emergency arise during the course of a patient's care, we are available to provide prompt care of a comprehensive nature during extended hours, seven days a week.
Complex surgical patients are served through our high-risk preoperative clinic where potential medical complications of surgery can be identified and addressed in advance. Clinic visits are also provided to patients who have medical illnesses such as diabetes or heart disease that require specialized management during their course of cancer treatments; we work in coordination with the patient's community physicians whenever possible through our Ambulatory Internal Medicine Clinic. Also seen in this clinic are patients whose community physicians desire an additional opinion in the evaluation of complex or confusing symptoms or findings suggestive of cancer, but where a definitive diagnosis has not been made.
IHM bridges the gap between highly specialized cancer care and general medicine. With our special experience working in a world-class cancer center while providing broad-based holistic care, many consider us to be their "primary care physician" within the Moffitt system.