The UCLA-Olive View Program (formerly UCLA-San Fernando Valley Program) is a UCLA affiliated Internal Medicine residency training program, ACGME approved since 1975.  It is currently based at the Olive View-UCLA Medical Center, a county hospital located at the north end of the San Fernando Valley, about 30 minutes from UCLA.  The training program is recognized for its excellence in clinical teaching, diverse patient population with wide-ranging pathology, initial disease presentation (housestaff make initial diagnoses), and a balanced inpatient and outpatient education.  Residents who choose to come to Olive View are often interested in making a difference in underserved patients and communities, and thrive on supervised autonomy and the collegial culture of the program.  Olive View is one of the most popular rotations for UCLA medical students, as well as for housestaff from other training programs throughout Los Angeles.

The UCLA-OVP has 3 training tracks: a traditional 3 year categorical track in Internal Medicine, a one year preliminary track for those entering a different specialty, and a unique 5 year combined Internal Medicine/Emergency Medicine track.  Traditionally, about 50-60% of graduates of the 3 year categorical program enter a subspecialty fellowship, while the other graduates pursue hospitalist and/or primary care careers.

The Olive View facility is a 377-bed hospital built in 1987, the newest acute care medical center operated by the County of Los Angeles.  It serves the needs of low income and indigent patients as well as the surrounding middle class community.  This population is younger than most, with an average age between 40 and 50.  Approximately 60% of patients are Hispanic.  Many people of diverse ethnicities use Olive View, including immigrants from developing countries.  Patients often present with acute, untreated illnesses, exposing housestaff to common medical disorders as well as a wide variety of unusual and rare diseases.

Olive View has eight medicine ward services, with two teams on call every fourth night.  Three teams staff the ICU.  Residents provide consultation services for patients on the Surgical, Ob-Gyn and Psychiatric services.  Subspecialty fellows and a full-time clinical faculty provide consultations and supervision.  In addition to the inpatient medical services, Olive View has a very busy outpatient department, which includes the emergency room, urgent care (staffed by Internal Medicine) and a variety of continuity and subspecialty clinics.  Separate county-run community clinics (Valley Care) are also training sites staffed with full-time UCLA faculty for housestaff continuity panels.