Family Practice

Chairman / Mark Krotowski, MD, FAAFP

The Department of Family Practice at The Brookdale University Hospital Medical Center serves as the vital link between practicing community family physicians and the full resources of the medical center.

Board-certified and board-eligible family physicians in the department have full admitting privileges in the Department of Medicine and qualified practitioners with training and experience in pediatrics may also obtain admitting privileges in the Department of Pediatrics.Family practitioners are the backbone of managed care and the department assists and advises staff members regarding all aspects of the changes in the healthcare system.The Department of Family Practice conducts weekly seminars specifically designed to inform practicing physicians of the most significant developments in the major fields of practice.  Problems that regularly confront the family physician on a daily basis in the practice of medicine are emphasized.The basic orientation of these seminars will be the practical utilization of newly acquired skills for the family physician in office and hospital practice.  This series of seminars consists of 52 hourly lectures by experts in each field and covers a broad range of subjects in the fields of cardiology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, hematology, medical genetics, neonatology, nephrology, obstetrics and gynecology, orthopedics, pediatrics, pulmonary medicine, radiology, and surgery and surgical subspecialties.  In addition, an ongoing series of lectures in electrocardiography are conducted on a monthly basis.The seminars are jointly sponsored by the scientific program committee of the American Society of the State of New York for Continuing Medical Education.The Medical Society of the State of New York designates this continuing medical education for 52 category 1, continuing medical education credits toward the physicians' recognition award of the American Medical Association.  The program has been reviewed and is acceptable for 52 prescribed hours of credit by the American Academy of Family Physicians.Departmental meetings are held on a monthly basis in order to ensure that all staff members are fully informed regarding hospital policies and procedures, legal responsibilities in managed care, patients' rights, risk management, infection control, needs of the elderly, safety management and cardiopulmonary resuscitating updates.

The chairman of the department and select members of the department participate in community educational activity on an ongoing basis throughout the year.