Team Structure
Our program offers one position per year and, thus, has a first and a second-year fellow. The fellows work closely together in the care of the inpatients. Recently, we established a two-service model in which each fellow runs his or her own service. The faculty are evenly split between the two services with subspecialty faculty (i.e., colorectal, oncology, pectus) and their resulting patients cohorted on the same service. Subspecialty fellows are assigned to the services in accordance with the faculty concentration on each team. General surgery residents and nurse practitioners complete the team rosters.
General surgery residents (PGY1, 2, and 3) from the University of Cincinnati and two community programs (Good Samaritan Hospital and Jewish Hospital - PGY3) rotate on the service over the course of the year. The service frequently has 1-3 medical students from the University of Cincinnati medical school. In addition, we offer outside medical students and residents the opportunity to do rotations on our service.
The pediatric surgery division is supported by an experienced group of pediatric nurse practitioners who provide around the clock coverage for our inpatients. On weekdays, all of the primary (non-consult) patients are managed by the nurse practitioner team, who communicate closely with the residents, fellows, and attendings on the status of the patients. Five nights per week, the floor patients are managed overnight by the nurse practitioners with the on-call resident or subspecialty fellow focusing his or her efforts on new consults, trauma, and ICU patients. We feel fortunate to have this amazing group caring for our patients; this system allows the fellows to focus on the operating room during the day.
The faculty employ a surgeon of the week (SOW) model with faculty taking the SOW role for one week at a time. In addition, there is a second faculty member that takes call each day for 24 hours. The SOW and call surgeon work together to complete rounds, see new consults, evaluate trauma patients, and perform emergent/unplanned surgeries.
