I too will be starting an Amb Care residency on the 22nd. Mine is with the Indian Health Service. I also couldn't be happier. I've talked to many officers in the IHS and I've had a hard time finding someone who doesn't love what they do (yes, I said officer, so you will be wearing a uniform, but unlike the armed forces, you don't have to move all the time unless you want to).
I will be going to Claremore, Oklahoma, which by the way isn't real rural. It is only 25 minutes from Tulsa and Claremore itself has about 19,000 people.
More than 50% of my residency is ambulatory care. As mentioned above, to get accredited the residency has to have some inpatient rotations. The Claremore hospital only has 50 beds. The have three pharmacy run clinics (lipid, anticoag, and HF). I'm not sure what my project will be yet, but I may be adding a pharmacy run diabetes clinic.
To find more information on IHS residencies, go to
http://www.ihs.gov/medicalprograms/pharmacy/Resident/
Here is a link to some more information about compensation and benefits
http://www.hhs.gov/pharmacy/pdf/secret1.pdf
Not all the sites are rural. There are residencies in Phoenix and Anchorage, and like I mentioned above, Claremore isn't that rural, and Tehlaquah is another semi-large city that has a residency. Gallup, NM is a decent sized town, but really isn't close to any larger city (Albuquerque is about 2.5 hours away). As mentioned in another post there is loan repayment. Not every site has this option, it is based on how many vacancies the site had the previous year (or something close to that). Every year different sites will get loan repayment money, but if you get loan repayment it is for 20,000 for two years (so 40,000) and you commit to work for IHS for 2 year.
If you are worried about getting an ambulatory care job after you graduate, you don't have to worry about that with the IHS. There are many locations all over the country that you can go to. They pay for your moving expenses (they even pack the boxes).
As far as compensation is concerned, let me supplement the information in the .pdf link above. First of all you will get paid normal salary during your residency (in other words, you make about twice as much as you would in any other residency). I have dependents, so I'm going to give you the compensation numbers from an officer with dependents compensation. For the most part the BAH is going to be 1200 to 1300. I think the highest of the residencies is Anchorage where it is 2147. If you want to see the exact numbers for the different residencies, find the zip code and go here:
http://www.defensetravel.dod.mil/perdiem/bah.html
So lets just assume your housing allowance is 1300. We are going to assume that you would normally be putting 500/month into a retirement account (but in the IHS you don't have to do this because you get a pension at 20 years of half your base salary and you get it until you die). We are also going to assume that you pay 300/month for health insurance (in the IHS you don't have to pay for health insurance, it is just provided. I think you do have to pay for dental, but I don't think it is that much/month). Your compensation looks like the following (monthly):
Base pay (taxable) = 3540
Variable special pay (FICA exempt) = 1250
Subsistence pay (no tax) = 223
Housing (no tax) = 1300
Retirement = 500
Health insurance = 300
Total = 7113 X 12 months = 85356
Don't forget that you don't have to pay tax on some of this so it is like getting an extra $5000/year or so. Therefore, your total pay for your residency is roughly equivalent $90,356. That's not bad considering that most residencies don't even pay 45k.
Now lets add the 30k sign on bonus you can get at the start of your residency and you make 120k during your residency (you have to commit to 4 years with the IHS to get the bonus, which shouldn't be a problem since I've had a hard time finding someone who doesn't love what they do).
After 4 years with the IHS you will be making 1500 more per month which brings the compensation up to around 108k. If you think of the sign on bonus being spread across the first three years 10k/year and the 9,600/year increase you get after 3 years of service, you are making about 100k/year the first 4 years and then after 4 years you are making 108k. Lets look at the 4 year total of doing the IHS versus another residency and then subsequently working for the IHS and in the amb care arena
IHS Other
1st year 100k 45k
2nd year 100k 100k
3rd year 100k 103k
4th year 108k 106k
total 408k 354k
Not bad for a clinical position. I know that was a little confusing, but I think too many people look at the compensation without taking into everything into consideration.
Just so you know, there were quite a few applicants this year. I think there were over 60 and there were 20 resident positions that were filled. I would love to see even more applicants this next year. That is why I've given so much information about the IHS here.
I love what the IHS has to offer. The money is just a bonus and I hope I explained it well here. I'm more excited about the clinics and the the great people I get to work with. The quality of life is what I care about most and I think IHS offers the best package out there.
Let me know if you have any questions.
