Lehigh Valley Hospital offers a one-year residency in surgical critical care, with an emphasis in trauma. Applicants to the program must have completed an accredited general surgery residency. The training takes place at a tertiary care facility, which was designated Pennsylvania’s first Level I Trauma Center in 1981. The program is fully accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. Upon completion of the training year, the surgeon will be eligible to take the board examination for added qualifications in surgical critical care.

Over 3000 patients are admitted annually to the trauma/surgical critical care service, with 85 percent suffering from blunt injuries and 15 percent from penetrating wounds. The average daily census of trauma patients is 35. LVH provides trauma service for a 10-county area comprising approximately 1.8 million residents. The hospital’s University MedEvac air evacuation service flies over 1,000 trauma victims to LVH yearly.

The trauma/surgical critical care team is responsible for supervising a trauma operating room, two trauma resuscitation bays, a 12-bed trauma/neurosurgical intensive care unit, a seven-bed surgical intensive care unit, and a nine-bed burn unit. The program is supervised by a full-time director and is supported by six trauma/critical care surgeons. Three full-time burn surgeons staff the burn unit, which is a regional center for northeastern Pennsylvania. Trauma surgeons are available in-house 24 hours a day. Two general surgery residents and two emergency medicine residents are assigned to the service. Fourth year medical students are assigned to this service for an elective rotation as requested.

Additional support is provided by a trauma nurse coordinator, trauma research assistant, trauma/surgical critical care office and secretary, and a program development office with a trauma quality improvement coordinator. Opportunities for clinical research are available. A research committee meets monthly to discuss ongoing projects and to identify new topics for study. The trauma division holds didactic lectures, journal club, and mortality & morbidity reviews, in addition to participating in the department of surgery grand rounds and mortality and morbidity conferences. The curriculum is tailored to meet the needs and interests of the individual resident within.

Please direct inquiries to:

Michael D. Badellino, M.D., Program Director
Surgical Critical Care Residency
Phone: (610) 402-8966