This three-year program, which offers eight PGY 1 positions each year, prepares residents to provide emergency medical services and to serve as emergency medical services advisers to the hospital and community. Board-certified emergency physicians constitute the faculty of Emergency Medicine. Through comprehensive clinical experience and varied research opportunities, residents are trained in medical care for acute and life-threatening situations. Allegheny General Hospital logs more than 40,000 emergency medicine visits annually, giving residents an opportunity to observe a wide variety of patients, including those with medical, surgical, toxicologic, traumatic and psychiatric problems. Because admission rate and patient acuity levels are high, residents are exposed to an excellent clinical mix.
Pediatric patients comprise one-fifth of the patient population.
There is an inpatient pediatric rotation at Allegheny General Hospital as well as a pediatric intensive care rotation at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and a pediatric emergency department elective. Quality assurance is a key component of the Emergency Medicine program. There are numerous aspects of quality assurance, including daily record review, that help ensure proper patient care and educational feedback to the Emergency Department staff. In addition, prospective and retrospective studies are periodically conducted on such topics as radiograph and EKG interpretation, resuscitation techniques, infectious disease treatment and patient follow-up. The Emergency Medicine core content represents the central body of knowledge for the study and practice of emergency medicine.