What's a Teaching Hospital?
A teaching hospital, or academic medical center, is a hospital that is affiliated with a major medical school. By being at the forefront of the latest scientific developments, teaching hospitals provide a unique combination of high quality patient care and medical education.
Affiliated with the University of Michigan Medical School – one of the leading research-oriented medical schools in the nation – C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital is recognized nationally and internationally for excellence in clinical care, teaching and research. Patients at Mott and other U-M hospitals and health centers directly benefit from the scientific advancements of the U-M medical school.
Teaching hospitals provide a host of unique advantages to patients, including:
- Improved quality of care
- New cures and treatment therapies
- State-of-the-art technologies
- Shorter length of stay for major illnesses
- Superior outcomes and survival rates
- Specialized surgeries and experimental medical procedures
- The expertise of an accomplished faculty of physicians and surgeons available 24-hours a day
Commonly referred to as the “training ground” for the next generation of physicians, teaching hospitals educate medical students and house officers under the supervision of staff and faculty representing a broad range of medical and surgical specialties. As part of the training and education process, house officers (also referred to as residents) and U-M Medical School students are part of a patient’s health care team.
A house officer is a doctor who has completed medical school, received an M.D. degree and is now undertaking intensive training for a medical or surgical specialty. House officers write orders and make care-related decisions under the direct supervision of the attending doctor (the U-M faculty physician in charge of the patient’s care). Medical students who are completing the final two years of their four-year course of study at the U-M Medical School can provide patient care under the direct supervision of either the attending or resident physician.
The U-M Medical School has awarded nearly 18,000 medical degrees since its inception in 1848. It is consistently ranked as one of the leading medical schools in the United States.
