Residency Programs
> Emergency Medicine
> Program Features
sherry.allen@palmettohealth.org
803-434-3790
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.
- 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 for interested residents and provides funding for additional texts and conferences
CHILDREN'S EMERGENCY CENTER
- The Children's Emergency Center (CEC) occupies more than 6,000 square feet of space within the emergency department and care for more than 30,000 patients each year.
- All emergency medicine attending physicians staff the CEC including two physicians double-boarded in emergency medicine and pediatric emergency medicine.
- The CEC is a well-maintained clinical area with trained pediatric emergency nurses, private rooms and a resuscitation bay with age-appropriate equipment.
- During emergency medicine months all residents work approximately one-third of their shifts in the Children's Emergency Center. Interns are also assigned to an entire month of emergency pediatric training.
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 2000 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 20 percent of trauma admissions are for penetrating injuries.
ULTRASOUND TRAINING AND EMERGENCY ULTRASOUND FELLOWSHIP
- The Emergency Department at Palmetto Health Richland has been a national leader in emergency ultrasound education since 1997. There currently are four ultrasound systems in the department exclusively for EM resident and attending use. Residents are provided with a state-of-the-art, web-based education system on common and novel uses of ultrasound in emergency medicine 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.
- Since 1998, department personnel have been directing the 3rd Rock Ultrasound Emergency Ultrasound Course.
- 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.
- Applicants must be 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.
UNDERSEA AND HYPERBARIC MEDICINE
Palmetto Health Richland is home to an internationally praised Hyperbaric Medicine Course which is open to interested residents as an elective rotation.
Celebrating 25 Years of Clinical Excellence and National Leadership
- Throughout the past quarter of a century, this unique service has become nationally and globally prominent. Recognition centers on leadership roles in the development of evidence-based clinical practice standards, provision of primary and advanced medical education opportunities and the conduct of groundbreaking scientific research. What follows are some specific landmarks that set Palmetto Health Richland’s hyperbaric medicine service apart from its peers.
- Over 3,000 patients have safely undergone approximately 90,000 treatments.
- Uninterrupted 24/7-call response for wide-ranging medical emergencies for 25 years.
- Patients transferred to Palmetto Health Richland from throughout South Carolina, as well as North Carolina and Georgia.
- Introduced first evidence-based hyperbaric medicine treatment protocols and algorithmic case management now adopted throughout much of North America.
- Leading International Hyperbaric Training Center
- More than 6,500 health care professionals have trained in hyperbaric medicine at Palmetto Health Richland from across the United States and all other continents.
- First nationally accredited hyperbaric medicine facility in North America (accredited “with distinction” when this designation first became available.)
- Headquarters Facility for an International Consortium of Clinical Research Facilities
- Conducted the first randomized and double-blind cross-over clinical trials (Level 1 medical evidence) in the 90-year history of hyperbaric medicine.
- Life-saving and central nervous system sparing resource for individuals poisoned with carbon monoxide and cyanide, divers and aviators stricken with decompression sickness, and patients whose brains are inadvertently embolized with gas during various diagnostic and therapeutic procedures.
- Created the Certification Program in Hyperbaric Technology
- Headquarters for the National Board of Diving & Hyperbaric Medical Technology.
- Medical literature review resource for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service
WILDERNESS MEDICINE
- The wilderness medicine rotation has for the past decade been extremely popular with residents in emergency medicine and other specialties. Medical student positions are available for the rotation conducted every September.
- The curriculum is a combination of live didactic lectures as well as outdoor skills stations.
- The rotation culminates in a 4-day camping trip to the Appalachian mountains in western North Carolina.
HAWAII ELECTIVE
- Since 2002 senior residents have been offered this unique elective opportunity on the island of Oahu in Hawaii. The rotation consists of ED 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 accommodates families, including small children.
SIMULATION AND SURGICAL SKILLS PROCEDURE LAB
- Opened in 2007, the Palmetto Health Simulation Medicine Center is located on the Richland campus with over 10,000 square feet of surface area. It contains exceptional, state-of-the-art resources for this exciting and growing area of medical education.
- The center's director, Dr. Eric Brown, is a faculty member with the department of emergency medicine, and EM 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 to practice 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 only 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
- The program's curriculum includes training and instruction on topics relevant to the challenges residents face after graduation. The lecture series includes talks on personal finance, contracts, job searching, hospital administration, fatigue and sleep issues, and interpersonal relationships as professionals.
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:
- Wilderness Medicine (see above)
- 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 review by our ultrasound fellowship staff. The rotation is open every month except June.
- 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 emergency medicine electives, senior medical students can contact:
Sherry Allensherry.allen@palmettohealth.org
803-434-3790