The Unit
Description
Hospital Data: Beds = 420 trauma admissions = 3500 annual ED visits = 60,000 ICU beds = 25 blunt trauma/penetrating trauma = 85%/15% surgical procedures = 2,000
Fellowship Program
Clinical Responsibilities
The Surgical Critical Care Fellowship is an ACGME/RRC approved training program, whose goal is to educate fellows in the advanced care of critically ill and injured patients. Rotational experience includes trauma, cardiac, burn, and pediatric, as well as general surgical critical care. The fellowship is designed to provide the critical care resident (CCR) with an education in the principles and practice of state-of-the art surgical critical care, by exposing them to a broad array of surgical illnesses; this is accomplished through teaching rounds, primary patient care, educational conferences, and specialized rotations.
By the completion of training, the CCR is expected to demonstrate proficiency in surgical critical care decision making, specific organ system support, evaluation of new technology and treatment techniques, ICU administration, outcomes assessment, research design, and interaction with patients, families, and health care personnel. These clinical goals will be accomplished by providing the CCR with a position dedicated to the intensive care units at Denver Health Medical Center (DHMC), The Children’s Hospital of Denver (TCH), and the University of Colorado Hospitals (UCHSC). Training will consist of twelve months: eight dedicated to General Surgical Critical Care, one to Pediatric Critical Care, one to Burn Critical Care, one to Cardiothoracic Critical Care, and one to research.
Research Opportunities
The opportunity for critical care research will be available to interested residents in either the basic or clinical realms. The research laboratory at DHMC, which is NIH funded, focuses on the effects of injury on host inflammatory states; it includes investigations into neutrophil priming and cytotoxicity, osmolar regulation of the inflammatory signaling cascade, the function of the cytoskeleton in intracellular signal transduction and responses, the function of mesenteric lymph on the development of post injury MOF, and the effects of blood transfusion on recipient inflammatory states. The Trauma registry and Multiple Organ Failure databases provide a wealth of clinical information to supplement our basic science research. The research lab structure is a collaborative effort with the UCHSC Department of Surgery, and includes surgical faculty, full time investigators, research technicians, and surgical research fellows. In addition to database driven clinical research, residents are encouraged to ask novel questions and investigate them in turn. Current clinical projects of the DHMC faculty include damage control surgical techniques, enteral feeding, the open abdomen, the effect of blood transfusions, the etiology of MOF, and injury patterns in the pediatric population.
Salary
$57,000
Applicant Requirements
Board eligible general surgeons
Contact
C. Clay Cothren, MD FACS
Department of Surgery
Denver Health Medical Center
777 Bannock Street, MC 0206
Denver, CO 80204
United States
Phone: + 1 303 436 6558
Fax: + 1 303 436 6572
Email:
Sep 26, 2006
