Program Features
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EMS Training
The EMS training at Palmetto Health Richland combines several educational experiences to provide residents with exposure to a wide spectrum of out-of-hospital emergency care. The EMS curriculum consists both ground and air ambulance assignments during an intern year rotation. Ground EMS
The Richland County EMS System transports more than 35,000 patients per year, the majority of which come to Palmetto Health Richland. Residents interface with Richland County EMS by riding with ground units and giving lectures to paramedics on emergency medicine topics. An assistant director position is available to interested residents and provides funding for additional texts and outside conference attendance.
Air EMS Palmetto Health's air EMS service merged with that of another local hospital to form South Carolina LifeNet. The new expanded service will help to facilitate the creation of a regional air ambulance program to serve central South Carolina.
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Tactical EMS Work with the Richland County Sheriff's Department Special Response Team and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED). Educational activities include exercises in care under fire, medical threat assessment, command responsibility, and care of the team. An assistant director position is available to interested residents and provides funding for additional texts and conferences |
Children's Emergency Center
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The Children's Emergency Center occupies more than 6,000 square feet of space within the emergency department and care for more than 23,000 patients each year. All emergency medicine attending physicians staff the Children's Emergency Center including two physicians double-boarded in emergency medicine and pediatric emergency medicine as well as a boarded pediatrician with more than a decade of experience working in our department. The center itself is a spacious, well-maintained clinical area with 14 beds including a resuscitation bya. Trained pediatric emergency nurses staff this area of the department. During emergency medicine months all residents work approximately one-third of their shifts in the Children's Emergency Center. Interns also are assigned to an entire month of emergency pediatric training. |
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Trauma Center
Palmetto Health Richland provides the only Level I Trauma Center for the Midlands region of South Carolina and parts of southern North Carolina. Within the emergency department are two spacious, state-of-the-art trauma resuscitation bays where more than 1,500 major trauma admissions are seen each year. The EM residents actively participate in all trauma resuscitations by providing airway management and by rotating on the trauma service during two months of their training. Approximately 30 percent of trauma admissions are for penetrating injuries. The Emergency Department at Palmetto Health Richland has been a national leader in emergency ultrasound education since 1997. There currently are six ultrasound systems in the department exclusively for EM resident and attending use. Residents are provided with a state-of-the-art, web-based educational system on common and novel uses of ultrasound in emergency medical settings. All residents are required to complete the training guidelines set forth by the American College of Emergency Physicians while completing hundreds of exams in an expanding number of uses. Applicants must in their final year of EM residency or have graduated from an EM program and be board-eligible or board certified. For more information, contact the fellowship director, Patrick Hunt, MD at huntpat@sc.rr.com or visit the fellowship's web page. Palmetto Health Richland is home to an internationally praised course in Hyperbaric Medicine which is open to interested residents as an elective rotation. For more information, see Palmetto Health's website for HBO fellowship. Wilderness Medicine
Medical student positions are available for our unique and very popular Wilderness Medicine rotation in September of each year. Curriculum is a combination of live didactic lectures as well as outdoor skills stations. Rotations culminates in a 4-day camping trip to the Appalachian mountains in western North Carolina. For more information, contact Dr. Allison Harvey.
Hawaii Elective
Senior residents may take part in a unique elective opportunity on the island of Oahu in Hawaii. The rotation consists of evening shifts in the state's largest emergency department at Queen's Medical Center. Participants can expect to encounter a wonderfully unique practice environment with cultural diversity and pathology indicative of the island's tropical and tourist climate. Residents are provided with a two-bedroom apartment in the exciting city of Honolulu. The apartment will accommodate families, including small children. Simulation and Surgical Skills Procedure Lab
The simulation lab that utilizes a computerized simulation manikin is located in the Emergency Department and at the hospital's Simulation Center. Residents are assigned to educational exercises conducted in the lab on a regular basis. The laboratory is capable of providing practical instruction on common and seldom used airway techniques such as lumbar puncture, thoracentesis, endotracheal intubation, rapid sequence induction, cricothyrotomy, laryngeal-mask airways, and fiberoptic intubations. In addition, the lab can be used to test a resident's ability to manage complex resuscitation scenarios. Four times each year the program conducts a surgical procedures lab at the University of South Carolina's Health Sciences Center. The lab utilizes animal models for practicing life-saving surgical techniques such as thoracostomy, pericardiocentesis, cricthyrotomy, thoracotomy, and others. All residents participate in at least three such laboratory experiences during their training.
Toxicology
The Palmetto Poison Center is under the direction of Dr. William Richardson, a member of our faculty and the leading toxicologist in the state. Toxicology education is provided through an integrated curriculum consisting of educational activities assigned during the first year of training in the residency. Residents will be provided with opportunities to work in the poison center as well as participate in case reviews and toxicology-related lectures and presentations.
Transition to Practice
Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine
Ultrasound Training & Emergency Ultrasound Fellowship
Since 1998, department personnel have been directing the South Carolina College of Emergency Physicians Emergency Ultrasound Course. Residents may become instructors during their PGY-2 and PGY-3 years of training, and this provides them with a unique opportunity to work with courses that provide Continuing Medical Education (CME) and to travel to other regions of the country to meet emergency physicians and review their departments. Residents have traveled to such varied locations as Los Angeles, Boston, New York, Cancun, Hawaii, Orlando, Washington, Nassau, and Saudi Arabia.
The Emergency Department also offers a one-year fellowship in emergency ultrasound. Fellows will receive advanced training in all areas of clinical ultrasound including cardiovascular, peripheral vascular, procedural, musculoskeletal, and critical care.
Senior Retreat
Each spring, senior residents and their spouses participate in an out-of-town retreat at the famous Grove Park Inn located in the mountains of western North Carolina. The retreat includes sessions on personal finance, interpersonal relationships, and medical malpractice.
Medical Student Electives
A one-month elective rotation is available for senior medical students. The rotation consists of approximately 15 shifts as well as didactic lectures, simulation medicine training, and surgical skills lab during the months in the fall. To avoid diluting the educational experience, only six to seven students are allowed to rotate each month, and interested candidates must submit an application. Visiting students are eligible for housing on a first-come, first-serve basis. The student rotation is not available in June and July.
Medical students may also apply for three other rotations in our department:
Clinical Ultrasound
Students attend lectures and learn from an internet-based curriculum in addition to working in the emergency department performing ultrasound scans on a wide variety of patients. Each student is expecting to perform and submit 200 studies for critical review by our ultrasound fellowship staff. Rotation is open every month except June. For information, contact Sherry Allen.
Pediatric Emergency Medicine
Medical students work approximately fifteen shifts in the
Children's Emergency Center in addition to Simulation
Medicine Training. Rotations available every month except June and July.
To apply for or request more information on the emergency medicine elective, senior medical students can contact:
Lisa Watkins
Assistant to the Registrar, and
Visiting Student Coordinator
USC School of Medicine
lwatkins@gw.med.sc.edu
803-733-3325