Rotations

Department orientation begins the week of June 15, 2020. The purpose of our week-long G1 Orientation Program is to:

• Truly welcome you and provide you with opportunities to know us and your peers.
• Orient you to the Department’s vision, mission and values, and program.
• Ensure your success on your first few weeks on the job.

During this week, you will hear from a variety of faculty and residents, experience a “day in the life of an intern,” practice critical response and team communication skills, become familiar with the G1-G2 core curriculum and engage in leadership development discussions. We will also assess your current level of technical skill via a short performance exam in our simulation skills lab. You will also have the opportunity to meet some chiefs, understand your administrative responsibilities, and master the computer systems.

Welcome aboard! We look forward to having you.

Schedule

Acute Care Surgery-Night

While on night float, you will be the first call for problems with patients on the floor (not in the ICU) in addition to handling direct admissions from other hospitals and clinics that staff have already accepted. Your shift will be approximately 11 hours/night, six days a week (Sunday - Friday nights). While the nights can get very busy, there is always a junior resident and a critical care staff physician in the hospital should you need assistance. You will be responsible for anywhere from 60-90 surgical patients depending on time of the year. You will be covering the following surgical services: General, Surgical Oncology, Thoracic, Colorectal, Transplant (Kidney, Liver, Pancreas, and Donor), CVTS (Cardiovascular Thoracic Surgery), Minimally Invasive/Bariatric, and Vascular. While operative opportunities are minimal on this rotation, this is a valuable rotation for learning how to "run the show," assess post-operative patients, hone your instincts, and manage time. Sleep is not always possible, but there are usually a couple hours each night that can be used to study, sleep, or relax.

Service Complement: PGY-2, 1 PGY-1
Faculty: Drs. Harmon*, Beilman, Brunsvold, Bulander, Chipman, Hoskuldsson, Ottosen, Rickard, Tignanelli

Emergency General Surgery (EGS)

The General Surgery service at the University provides experience in general surgery and pancreatic auto islet cell transplantation. This is the busiest service of intern year with the average patient census between 15-35 patients. It provides a sound understanding of the basics of pre- and post-operative care for complex general surgery patients found at an academic institution. You will also have the opportunity to be in the operating room and can obtain a very broad exposure to general surgery. You may participate in approximately 3-5 intern level cases per week. The primary focus of the cases will include bread-and-butter general surgery cases ranging from laparoscopic cholecystectomies to port placements to emergent exploratory laparotomies. 

Service Complement: 1 PGY-5, 1 PGY-2, 2 PGY-1; occasionally there is a Family Medicine intern 
Faculty: Drs. Harmon*, Beilman, Brunsvold, Bulander, Chipman, Hoskuldsson, Ottosen, Rickard, Tignanelli

Colorectal Surgery

The Colorectal Surgery service provides broad exposure to major abdominal and anorectal cases. Clinic provides an excellent opportunity to be taught directly by the faculty and learn the basics of anoscopy, proctoscopy, and sigmoidoscopy. As the only resident (usually) on service, you go to the O.R. often, have a great degree of autonomy in patient management and work very closely with colorectal faculty and PA. The colorectal fellows are excellent teachers and will share level-appropriate portions of cases with you. You will also have the opportunity to scrub one-on-one with faculty several times during the month on major abdominal cases. A weekly conference with the surgical oncology service is another highlight. The average patient census is 10-20, and you will participate in at least 5 cases per week.

Service Complement: 1 Fellow, 1 PGY-1, 1 floor PA-C; occasionally there is 1 PGY-3
Faculty: Drs. Gaertner *, Madoff, Melton-Meaux

Thoracic Surgery

On this service, you will gain broad exposure to thoracic and foregut surgery. Expect plenty of pulmonary resections as well as foregut and endoscopic procedures. The faculty also do a number of novel operations including minimally invasive esophagectomies, transverse colon transpositions and lynx procedures. The majority of your time will be spent taking care of the floor patients, but there are many opportunities to get involved in the OR for thoracoscopic and laparoscopic cases. Clinic is an educational experience where you will learn how to treat and optimize patients with benign and malignant thoracic disease. There is also an excellent interdisciplinary thoracic oncology conference each week where you learn about all of the how to properly work up these complex patients for individually directed medical and/or surgical therapy. After this rotation you will be comfortable with chest tube management, reading thoracic imaging and managing post-operative problems of more complicated patients. You will receive a great deal of exposure to bronchoscopy, endoscopy, and endoscopic ultrasound. The average patient census is 10-20 patients and you will participate in at least 5 cases per week.

Service Complement: 1 Fellow, 1 PGY-3, 1 PGY-1, 1 floor/administrative PA-C
Faculty: Drs. Andrade, Rao*

Transplant Surgery

The University of Minnesota performs many solid organ transplants and is the home of many breakthroughs in transplantation. Transplant is separated into four services: Liver, Kidney, Pancreas and Donor. Heart and lung transplants are managed by the cardiovascular surgery service (a PGY-3 rotation). You are responsible mainly for the kidney transplant recipients, but will have the opportunity to operate with the other services as well.

These services have a high turnover and you will become comfortable with monitoring immunosuppression and recovery. While on this service, you will also get exposure to previous transplant patients who return with complications and/or infections and learn about the multidisciplinary approach necessary to manage these patients post-operatively. One of the most unique aspects of the rotation is having the opportunity to travel with the donor transplant team either across town or fly across the country for procurements. The average patient census on the renal transplant team is 5-10 patients and you will get the opportunity to be in the OR frequently participating in 5 cases per week depending on how busy the service ends up being. This is an excellent opportunity to increase your operating experience in large cases early in residency.

Service Complement: 1 PGY-1 (Kidney), 4 Fellows (Donor, Kidney, Liver, and Pancreas), 4 floor PA’s, occasional 1 PGY-3 (Liver/Pancreas)
Faculty: Drs. Chinnakotla, Finger, Kandaswamy, Kirchner, Pruett

General Surgery

The general surgery service offers an excellent operative experience for interns with a unique patient population. You will get to work one on one with staff in the operating room and the staff are all very willing to teach. VA grand rounds are held weekly and PGY-1’s are expected to give a presentation on the topic of their choice once per rotation. The average census is 5-10 patients, and you will participate in about 5 cases per week. This rotation also offers Minors clinic on Monday and Fridays, which is a “lump and bump” clinic where interns and students perform simple procedures in the clinic under staff supervision

Service Complement: 1 PGY-5, 1 PGY-2, 1 PGY-1; 1 Floor/Administrative PA
Faculty: Drs. Ramaswamy*, Colsen, Druck, Rezcallah, Waisbren

Colorectal/Endoscopy/Simulation

This rotation offers an excellent mix of clinic, OR, and Simulation time. You operate 1.5 days a week and practice colonoscopies and EGD's one day a week. Dr. Lee is a great teacher who lets you primarily manage patients. There is a different fellow on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (no fellow on Thursday or Friday), which allows the intern to be the continuity of care and truly run the small service. Interns practice with various simulators three afternoons a week. The average census is 1-5 patients and you will participate in 3-5 cases per week plus colonoscopies/EGD’s on Fridays.

Service Complement: 1 Colorectal fellow, 1 PGY-1
Faculty:  Drs. Ramaswamy*, Colsen, and Lee

Acute Care Surgery-Night

While on night float, you will be the first call for problems with patients on the floor (not in the ICU) in addition to handling direct admissions from other hospitals and clinics that staff have already accepted. Your shift will be approximately 11 hours/night, six days a week (Sunday - Friday nights). The nights can get busy, but there is always a junior resident and a critical care staff physician in house, should you need assistance. You will be responsible for anywhere from 40-60 surgical patients depending on the time of the year. You will be covering the following surgical services: Acute Care, Trauma, Vascular, and General/Colorectal. While operative opportunities are minimal on this rotation, this is a valuable rotation for learning how to "run the show," assess post-operative patients, hone your instincts, and manage time. Sleep is more possible at Regions and there are usually a couple hours each night that can be used to study or relax. This rotation also involves covering large trauma activations that come into the emergency room known as “Trauma Team Activations.”

Service Complement: 1 PGY-3, 1 PGY-1
Faculty: Drs. McGonigal*, Bennett, Blee, Carlson, Dries, Iyegha, Kopari, Mohr, Morris, Palmer

General Surgery

This service gives the PGY-1 a great deal of opportunity to learn the basics of hernia repair, breast surgery, outpatient surgery, hepatobiliary, colorectal, and GI surgery. The patients on the floor are “bread and butter” general surgery patients with less complex past medical problems. The conferences at Regions are trauma- heavy but also include general topics. The average patient census is 10-15 and you will participate in about 5-10 cases per week.

Service Complement: 1 PGY-5, 1 PGY-4, and 1 PGY-1
Faculty: Drs. Wolpert*, Carlson, Dries, Engwall, Fox, Morris, Schlaefer

Trauma Surgery

Depending on the time of year, this can be a quite busy service with excellent exposure to diagnosing and managing patients following simple and complex traumas. You will be involved in coordinating all aspects of care for these patients. The service is busiest during the summer, but the winter provides a steady flow of snowmobilers who have the added complication of hypothermia. There is a high turnover of patients. The PGY- 1 will participate in trauma team activations and will perform procedures when needed such as chest tubes, lines, and laceration repairs. The trauma experience at Regions is excellent and well-structured, and you should leave with a solid understanding of the principles of managing any injured patient including head bleeds, fractures, penetrating trauma and blunt trauma. The majority of trauma is blunt with about 10% of the volume being penetrating trauma. The average census is 15-35 patients and operative experience will depend on the time of year and number of residents.

Service Complement: 1 PGY-2; 1-3 PGY-1’s; Trauma PA
Faculty: Drs. McGonigal*, Bennett, Blee, Iyegha, and Palmer

Burn

One of the more unique rotations of the year involving an entire interdisciplinary team specialized for ICU and general burn care. This individual unit has state-of-the-art technology and facilities, great nursing and supportive staff. The service is very busy during the summer months, but you will also see a variety of frostbite and burn patients throughout the winter. Both ICU and ward beds are present on the burn unit. You are given a great deal of autonomy, but there are always in-house juniors and staff to assist in emergencies as well as an “open phone” policy to speak with staff. Lectures and discussions occur multiple times per week depending on patient census. One of your most important resources for day-to-day learning will be the burn nurses. They have seen these burns and have skillfully taught PGY-1s to manage them. The average census is 5-15 patients and you will participate in 3-5 cases per week depending on the census. You will learn the basics of skin grafting and burn excision. Plan to do a lot of sewing, stapling and sweating.

Service Complement: 1 PGY-3, 1 PGY-1
Faculty: Drs. Mohr*, Bennett

General Surgery

This service will expose you to the private hospital setting in addition to trauma and SICU cares. It is meant to be an operative experience. You can assist in general surgery, thoracic, cardiovascular, vascular, colorectal, and/or plastic surgery cases. Each day you choose which surgeon you would like to operate with and then follow the patients you operate on while they are in-patients. It is a good rotation with mostly operative time. There are also opportunities to learn about SICU topics and practice ICU procedures. You will participate in 10- 15 cases per week, depending on the types of operations you gravitate toward.

Service Complement: 1 PGY-1; Multiple PA’s and NP’s
Faculty: Drs. Davis*, Beal, Beilman, Croston, Farhat, Felemovicius, Gipson, Hawes, Storrs, Potter, and Ottosen

*=Service Director

Acute Care Surgery-Night

As the night float PGY-2 at UMMC, you will be responsible for overnight admissions to and management of the Surgical ICU (SICU) service, new overnight ED and inpatient consults, providing supervision/ assistance to the overnight PGY-1 resident, and participating in emergency overnight general surgery cases.  In conjunction with the in-house faculty intensivist, you will gain significant experience with acute resuscitation of complex postop patients and with central and arterial line placement.  You are expected to see and staff all new consults and SICU admissions in a timely manner, along with providing timely updates to the on-call Chief Resident, faculty, and/ or fellow overnight about major clinical events or changes in patient status.  The night float resident works Monday through Thursday nights and a 24-hour call each Sunday and is expected to attend Tuesday morning grand rounds/ conference and morning general surgery teaching conferences.

Service Complement: 1 PGY-2, 1 PGY-1 
Faculty: Drs. Harmon*, Beilman, Brunsvold, Bulander, Chipman, Hoskuldsson, Ottosen, Rickard, Tignanelli, Leslie, and Ikramuddin

Emergency General Surgery (EGS)

The General Surgery service at the University provides experience in general surgery and pancreatic auto islet cell transplantation. This is a busy service with an average patient census between 15-35 patients. It provides a sound understanding of the basics of pre­and post-operative care for complex general surgery patients found at an academic institution. You will also have the opportunity to be in the operating room and can obtain a very broad exposure to general surgery. You may participate in approximately 5-10 cases per week. The primary focus of the cases will include bread-and-butter general surgery cases ranging from laparoscopic cholecystectomies to port placements to emerger exploratory laparotomies. You will also be responsible for completing all the general surgery consultations from the ED and the inpatient floors.

Service Complement: 1 PGY-5, 1 PGY-2, 2 PGY-1; occasionally there is a Family Medicine intern 
Faculty: Drs. Harmon*, Chipman, Banton, Beilman, Brunsvold, Davido, Hoskuldsson, Otteson, Tignanelli, Bulander

SICU

As the second-year resident on this rotation, you are responsible for running the service by managing the team and overseeing the care of all of the patients in the Unit. You will round daily with the SICU staff and a multi-disciplinary team. During this rotation, you will enhance your critical care skills by placing lines and managing ventilator-dependent patients. You will care for patients on a variety of services: general surgery, transplant, hepatobiliary, thoracic, gynecology, orthopedics, trauma and urology. There is a weekly conference and you will be responsible for an M&M presentation at the end of the rotation.

Service Complement: 1 SICU fellow, 1 PGY-2, 1 PGY-1 Ortho or Neurosurgery resident, 1 Anesthesia resident. 1 PA-C/NP
Faculty: Drs. Brunsvold*, Banton, Beilman, Chipman, Davido, Harmon, Hoskuldsson, Ottosen, Tignanelli, Bulander

Pediatric Surgery

The pediatric surgery service is a very busy service. You will be exposed to all the common surgical pathology such as gastroschisis, omphalocele, NEC, pectus excavatum, hernias, Hirschprung, etc. You are responsible for the management of the floor with the NP as well as the consults. You can expect to be a part of 5-10 cases per week. Call is split with the PGY-4 and is done as home call.

Service Complement: 1 PGY-4; 1 PGY-2; 1 floor NP
Faculty: Drs. Acton*; Saltzman, Hess, and Segura

Vascular Surgery

The vascular surgery service at UMMC treats patients with a wide range of vascular pathology. During your rotation, you will be exposed to open surgery, endovascular techniques, and medical treatment options for arterial, venous, and lymphatic conditions. You will be encouraged to come to the operating room every day, and you can expect to participate in portions of complex operations. You will also function as operating surgeon in cases such as amputations, vascular access, and fasciotomies. Most importantly, you will function as a vital member of the patient care team that includes advanced practice providers and a senior vascular fellow. You will be part of the general surgery call schedule, but there are no additional vascular surgery call requirements. There are weekly vascular conferences which we expect you to attend. 

Service Complement: 1 PGY-2, 1 PGY-6 or PGY-7; 1 service NP and/or PA
Faculty: Drs. Valentine* and Reed

Acute Care Surgery-Day

This is a busy service with a high rate of patient admissions and discharges. The second-year is responsible for the floor patients and working up new ER and inpatient consults. There is a chief and PA-C on the service to help with the workload. Consults that require operation will be operated on by the second year or chief as appropriate. There is autonomy in decision making for consults and you will be extremely busy. You will round daily with staff. There is no weeknight in-house call but you will take call on the weekend. There is trauma conference and M&M weekly.

Service Complement:  1 PGY-5, 1 PGY-2, 1 PA-C
Faculty: Drs. McGonigal*, Bennett, Blee, Dries, Iyegha, Morris, Palmer, Mohr, and Kopari

Trauma Surgery

Depending on the time of year, this can be a quite busy service with excellent exposure to diagnosing and managing patients following simple and complex traumas. As a junior resident, you will be responsible for running the service. The service is busiest during the summer, but the winter provides a steady flow of snowmobilers who have the added complication of hypothermia. There is a high turnover of patients. The trauma experience at Regions is excellent and well-structured, and you should leave with a solid understanding of the principles of managing any injured patient including head bleeds, fractures, penetrating trauma and blunt trauma. The majority of trauma is blunt with about 10% of the volume being penetrating trauma. The average census is 15-35 patients and operative experience will depend on the time of year and number of residents.

Service Complement: 1 PGY-2; 1-3 PGY-1’s; Trauma PA
Faculty: Drs. McGonigal*, Bennett, Blee, Iyegha, and Palmer

General Surgery

As a second year on this service you will have more operative experience and less responsibility for floor patients. You will have the opportunity to assist with hernia repairs, cholecystectomies, resection for melanoma, and minors clinic. You will be responsible for general surgery consults from the floor and the ER daily. You are expected to manage the consults with the help of the Chief on the service.

Service Complement: 1 PGY-5, 1 PGY-2, 1 PGY-1; 1 Floor/Administrative PA
Faculty: Drs. Ramaswamy*, Colsen, Rezcallah, Waisbren, and Druck

General Surgery

This rotation is at a private practice hospital where you will learn what it means to be a busy general surgeon. The operative volume is high and every day you can choose from “bread and butter” general, colorectal, vascular, or hepatobiliary cases. Call is one in four nights. You can expect to be up all night and in the operating room. All consults are initially staffed through the faculty so you can expect most consults to require an operation. You will follow your post-operative and consult patients until discharged. You should confer with faculty directly to discuss their care. Many patients are also followed by Hospitalists. There is a weekly teaching and M&M conference where residents are examined in an oral boards format.

Service complement: 2 PGY-4s, 1 PGY-3, 1 PGY-2
Staff: Drs. Melin*, Belzer, Colbert, Friedman, Grubbs, Heaton, Jones, Mendeloff, Ose, Schueppert, Svendsen, Vietzen, Willisodist

General Surgery

You will spend 5-6 weeks at our Duluth campus as part of the second year rotations. This is an incredible experience in outpatient general surgery. You get to operate almost every day and most residents will finish the rotation having done 60-100 cases. If you operate on a patient who stays in the hospital, it is expected that you follow the patient on a daily basis. The goal of this rotation is to experience surgery in a rural setting. There are weekly didactics onsite and the rotation continues to evolve as our program establishes the roles of the PGY-4 and PGY-5. At the current time, there is no weekend call, but you do cover overnight C-section call once a week.

Service Complement: 1 PGY-5, 1 PGY-4, 1 PGY-2
Faculty: Drs. Najarian*, Baxter, Monaghan, Zaidi, Greenleaf, Streitz, Riess, Bettendorf

Surgical Oncology

This service is highly educational and well-balanced with time split between patient care on the floor, operating, clinic, and teaching conferences. As the third-year, you are responsible for all of the floor work. You will do a large number of breast, melanoma, and thyroid cases and are expected to scrub/observe pancreas and liver cases. Clinic is three days/week, teaching conference is every Wednesday morning and there are specialty conferences (Breast and Liver) as well. Formal teaching rounds with all faculty occur weekly. The service also provides you with the M.D. Anderson Surgical Oncology Handbook.

Service Complement: 1 PGY-5, 1 PGY-3, 1 PGY-2; 1 PA-C 
Staff: Drs. Tuttle*, Evasovlch, Jensen, Hui

Thoracic Surgery

A fast-paced, high-volume service with opportunities for graduated independence in the operating room. The third-year is responsible for the care of the thoracic ICU patients, consults, and should oversee the management of the floor patients by the intern. Operative cases include thoracoscopic and open lobectomy, pneumonectomy, wedge resections, Nissen fundoplication, esophagectomy, and endoscopy with dilation/stenting. Clinic attendance is required as a lot of teaching happens in clinic. There are also weekly teaching conferences and didactic sessions. There are routinely daily rounds with an attending.

Service complement: Thoracic fellow, PGY-3, PGY-1, 1 PA-C
Staff: Drs. Andrade and Rao*

Colorectal or Transplant Surgery

This elective rotation allows residents to choose a second rotation on either the colorectal or transplant service. If transplant is chosen, time will be split between the liver and pancreas services. The resident gets exposure to the management of highly complex patients as well as participate in transplant operations. There is also opportunity to go on procurements with the fellows. The floor is typically managed by the PA-C’s, but sometimes you are also needed to help.

If colorectal is chosen, you will work with the fellow to run the service. There is a good balance of one-on-one operating with faculty as well as fellows taking the PGY-3 through cases. Clinic is very educational and residents are expected to attend if available. You will get more experience with colonoscopy and are responsible for ED and inpatient consults. The floor is typically managed by the PGY-1 and PA-C.

Service Complement:
Colorectal – 1 fellow, 1 PGY-3, 1 PGY-1, 1 PA-C
Transplant – 1 fellow, 1 PGY-3, 1 PA-C

Faculty:
Colorectal – Drs. Madoff, Melton-Meaux, Gaertner
Transplant – Drs. Kandaswamy*, Chinnakotla, Pruett, Kirchner, Finger

Cardiovascular Surgery (CVTS)

This rotation provides excellent exposure and training in caring for critically ill cardiac patients. The third-year is responsible for the surgical patients in the cardiac intensive care unit while nurse practitioners manage the care of post-op cardiac patients on the ward. You will round in the unit daily with the cardiothoracic fellow and may also round individually with both surgical faculty and intensivists. You will manage patients with VADs, BiVADs, heart transplants, post-op CAB and valve patients, and lung transplants. Dr. John conducts weekly teaching conferences. You will also improve your skills at line placement and ventilator management. There is opportunity to go to the operating room and you are expected to assist in opening and closing the chest with the Fellow.

Service complement: Cardiothoracic fellow, 1 PGY-3, 1 anesthesia resident
Staff: Drs. John*, Kelly, Shumway, Schaffer, Soule

Acute Care Surgery Night-Night

Depending on the time of year this can be an extremely busy rotation. A typical week includes a 24 hour shift on Sunday and then 6pm-7am, Monday–Thursday. You are post-call on Friday and then have Saturday off.  You are the most senior surgical resident in-house and are responsible for seeing all trauma and surgery consults and attending all Trauma Team Activations. You will often have the opportunity to see a patient in consultation and perform the surgery. Occasionally Chiefs are called in to help with more complex operations. The SICU is covered by an ER resident, but the PGY-3 is responsible for coverage of the Burn ICU and floor patients. This rotation allows you to operate autonomously and hone your triage skills. Staff are in-house and will see all consults and attend all cases. The Chief resident is in-house on weekends. You will attend M&M conference once a week at 6:30a Thursday before going home.

Service complement: 1 PGY-3, 1 PGY-1.
Faculty: Drs. McGonigal*, Bennett, Dries, Palmer, Morris, Mohr, Kopari, Iyegha, Blee

Burn

The third-year functions as the senior resident on this rotation. It is your responsibility to run the service and assist the intern in the management of all burn patients. There is ample opportunity to get to the OR where you will learn techniques of skin excision and grafting. You will also cover ER consults for burns, frostbite, and complex wounds. Clinic occurs four times per week in the afternoon and a resident is expected to attend each day. There is a weekly teaching conference and you will be asked to present at weekly M&M. The faculty are hands-on and will round daily. There are also multiple informal teaching conferences.

Service complement: PGY-3, PGY-1, occasionally plastic surgery PGY-3.
Staff: Drs. Mohr* and Kopari

General Surgery

This rotation is at a private practice hospital where you will learn what it means to be a busy general surgeon. The operative volume is high and every day you can choose from “bread and butter” general, colorectal, vascular, or hepatobiliary cases. Call is one in four nights. You can expect to be up all night and in the operating room. All consults are initially staffed through the faculty so you can expect most consults to require an operation. You will follow your post-operative and consult patients until discharged. You should confer with faculty directly to discuss their care. Many patients are also followed by Hospitalists. There is a weekly teaching and M&M conference where residents are examined in an oral boards format.

Service complement: 2 PGY-4, 1 PGY-3, 1 PGY-2.
Staff: Drs. Melin, Belzer, Colbert, Friedman, Grubbs, Heaton, Jones, Mendeloff, Ose*, Schueppert, Svendsen, Vietzen, Willis

Pediatric Surgery
The fourth-year is responsible for running the pediatric service and will oversee the intern. The fourth-year typically rounds on the NICU patients and co-manages the floor patients with the intern. You will be exposed to a wide range of congenital abnormalities including malrotation and diaphragmatic hernias as well as pectus excavatum and Nissen fundoplication. Teaching rounds occur daily with staff. Clinic is a valuable learning opportunity and a chance to see just how fast children recover.

Service complement: PGY-4, PGY-1.
Staff: Drs. Saltzman*, Acton, Hess, Segura

Vascular Surgery
This apprentice style rotation has long been a favorite among residents. Dr. Rosenthal does an excellent job of leading you through the work-up, operation, post-operative care, and health maintenance of each vascular patient. You have an opportunity for graduated independence in the operating room and will feel comfortable with vascular anatomy after this rotation. You can expect to perform fem-pop bypass, AV fistula, and AAA repairs. Each day you will round on patients and then discuss them with staff and spend the rest of your day in the operating room or clinic. There is an abundance of teaching on this rotation. You will take Chief trauma call during this rotation.

Service complement: PGY-4.
Staff: Drs. Rosenthal*, Barbato, Nguyen

General Surgery
The fourth-year and Chief Resident on this service divide cases. The Chief works with Dr. Wolpert and the 4th-year with Drs. Morris and Elmer. Typical cases performed include endocrine surgery with Dr. Morris (breast cancer, thyroid/parathyroid, adrenal) and a broad range of general surgery cases with Dr. Elmer. The fourth-year is also part of the Trauma Chief Resident call pool.

Service complement: PGY-5, PGY-4, PGY-1.
Staff: Drs. Wolpert*, Carlson, Morris

General Surgery
The six months you spend at this private practice hospital will be busy and O.R. heavy. There is excellent opportunity for vascular, colon-rectal, hepatobiliary, and "bread and butter" general surgery cases. Call is one in four nights; most of the call is spent operating. This rotation is historically one of our best and provides outstanding exposure to the private practice environment.

Service complement: 2 PGY-4, 1 PGY-3, 1 PGY-2.
Staff: Drs. Melin*, Belzer, Colbert, Friedman, Grubbs, Heaton, Jones, Mendeloff, Ose, Schueppert, Svendsen, Vietzen, Willis

Surgical Oncology
As Chief Resident on this service, you will be in charge of managing all patients and overseeing the PGY-3. Expect to round in the morning with the PGY-3 and then call to update staff on their patients. Formal staff rounds occur weekly. You are expected to attend each staff's clinic. You will have excellent exposure to laparoscopic and open hepatobiliary cases and will perform several Whipples and liver resections. There are several teaching conferences including Wednesday mornings which are conducted in an oral boards format. You will be very busy on this service. Scrub attire is not appropriate for this service.

Service complement: PGY-5, PGY-3.
Staff: Drs. Tuttle*, Evasovich, Jensen

Minimally Invasive Surgery/MIS
The Chief Resident on this service should expect to assist in several laparoscopic gastric bypasses as well as independently start all open gastric bypasses. Operative days are long and staff often run two rooms simultaneously. Great experience on a very high volume service in a popular field of general surgery.

Service complement: PGY-5, PGY-2, PGY-1.
Staff: Drs. Ikramuddin, Leslie, Buchwald.

Emergency General Surgery (EGS)
This service can be very busy with auto-islet transplants affording the Chief an excellent opportunity at operative autonomy. You will operate on patients with a variety of concerns including GI, hernia, biliary, complex wound, amputations, fistula creation, AAA ( open and endovascular), and long-leg bypass. You will round daily with the team and report to staff. You will also be responsible for staffing any general surgery consults from the ER or ward. Clinic occurs weekly. 

Service complement: 1 PGY-5, 1 PGY-2, 2 PGY-1. 
Faculty: Drs. Chipman*, Beilman, Brunsvold, Harmon, Hoskuldsson

Acute Care Surgery-Day
The Chief on this service is responsible for overseeing the care of all surgical consults from the floor and emergency department. This service is busy with high volume turnover. Each day will be different than the day before but you can expect to round daily with staff. During the day you will run Trauma Team Activations. You will be responsible for a junior resident. Teaching conference and M&M occur weekly.

Service complement: PGY-5, PGY-2, PA
Faculty: Drs. McGonigal*, Banton, Bennett, Bulander, Collins, Dries, Palmer

General Surgery
This service is an opportunity to perform "bread and butter" general surgery cases. As the Chief Resident, you will round daily and update staff. You will also take trauma call.

Service complement: PGY-5, PGY-4, PGY-2, PGY-1.
Faculty: Drs. Wolpert*, Bennett, Bulander, Carlson, Collins, Dries, Elmer, Morris, Palmer

General Surgery
The Chief Resident on this service will round with the team daily and then discuss patient management with staff. You will perform GI procedures with the general surgery staff and oncologic procedures with Dr. Al-Refaie. The Vascular service is run primarily by a nurse practioner, but as the Chief Resident you are expected to round on these patients daily. Operative cases include AAA repairs and amputations. There are teaching rounds, teaching conference, and M&M weekly. The Chief Resident is expected to lead M&M. Teaching rounds are geared for the PGY-2 and PGY-1.

Service Complement: 1 Chief, 1 PGY-2, 1 PGY-1
Faculty: Drs. Druck*, Clark, Santilli