Critical Care
Residents spend five months training in various critical care venues.

* Pediatric Intensive Care Unit - 2 months


* Coronary Care Unit - 1 month

* Medical Intensive Care Unit - 1 month

* Surgical Intensive Care Unit - 1 month

Trauma
The Washington Hospital Center trauma unit, MedSTAR is a level I trauma center with 24 hour in-house coverage by trauma surgeons. In 2003, the center cared for an average of 10 trauma patients per day. As the regional burn center, the trauma center sees a high volume of burn victims, approximately 400-450 patients in 2003. The trauma unit provides residents with extensive and progressively independent experience in treating trauma patients.

* First year residents serve four weeks as a team member

* Second year residents respond to trauma codes during 16 designated shifts

* Third year residents are assigned to the unit for six weeks; senior residents initiate trauma evaluations and resuscitations

Pediatrics
Pediatrics is an essential component of emergency medicine training. The clinical schedule incorporates pediatric training in a variety of settings to create a diverse and comprehensive experience. A total of four months are spent in pediatric rotations.

* Two one month rotations (PGY1, PGY3) are spent in the Pediatric Emergency Department at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital, a community hospital in Montgomery County, Maryland. The Pediatric Emergency Department is dedicated solely to treating children and is staffed by physicians who are board certified in pediatric emergency medicine.

* Two one month rotations (PGY1, PGY2) are spent in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Childrens National Medical Center providing experience with very ill children and the procedures involved in their care

* Rotations at the Georgetown Medical Centers Emergency Department; approximately 15% of their annual census are children and its CYAS clinic provides urgent evaluation of pediatric patients

Medical Informatics
A required first-year rotation, MedStar Healths Institute for Medical Informatics provides a general introduction to the field of medical informatics including detailed knowledge about the various information tools available to an emergency physician. Residents are trained in the use of the Azyxxi information system, a database that documents over 1,000,000 patient visits to the emergency departments of hospitals in the MedStar Health System. This early introduction to the field, and specifically to the Azyxxi system, enables residents to use it as a data source when preparing their Quality Improvement project as a PGY-2 and may be the basis for the Scholarly project required in the PGY-3 year. For more information on the Institute for Medical Informatics, please visit http://www.imedi.org/ .