Program Director's Message

 I’d like to welcome you to our residency program and invite you to explore our website.  Our program has recently celebrated 20 years of emergency medicine education.  If you want to know what we are really all about, look no further than our motto:

Teaching.  Service.  Excellence.  A Solid Foundation for the Future.

We are a busy community academic hospital with an emphasis on patient care and education.  Our emergency department is extremely busy, seeing approximately 79,000 patients/year and is part of our Level 1 Trauma Center.  What sets our ED apart from many others are the diversity of pathology, full age range, and full socioeconomic spectrum that our residents care for on a day-to-day basis.  In addition, emergency patients are admitted to both resident and private attending services.  This diversity of interaction provides for and enhances emergency medicine residents’ skills in three core competencies:  interpersonal and communication skills, professionalism, and systems-based practice.

While our institution has six residency programs, our only fellows are in gynecologic oncology. Emergency medicine procedures are done by emergency medicine residents, not fellows from other services.  I certainly don’t have to tell you how important a solid procedural education is to the practice of emergency medicine.

In our program, resident input is highly valued and substantive change occurs as a result. Many initiatives and process changes directly result from our annual residency retreat.  “Low hanging fruit” are “picked” immediately after the retreat and other projects are worked on throughout the year.  Ask our residents for details when you come to interview.  They will be happy to give you many examples.

In our program, there is a strong sense of “family”.  Our residents take ownership of their residency and know that their program and department leadership values their input and contributions to both education and the clinical arena.

Let me take a moment to give you some solid evidence of York Hospital’s commitment to medical education.  I am proud to work and teach in a community hospital that in May 2008 opened a 2.3 million dollar simulation center with all the latest, greatest and highest technology one could desire.  The medical staff contributed over a million dollars toward this project.  I am proud to work and teach in a community hospital that has broken ground on a $7.2 million two-story education pavilion with state-of-the-art auditorium and classrooms.

As you explore residency opportunities in emergency medicine, I suggest you ask a very important question: “Why are the members of the faculty at that institution?”  At the York Hospital emergency medicine residency program, the answer is simple.  We are all here for the residents and students.  We love to teach.  The residency program keeps us engaged, interested, and excited about our work.

I could go on and on, but you are busy.  When you come to visit, talk with our residents.  They are your best and most reliable source of information.  Ask them the tough questions.  They will be candid with you and I believe you will be impressed.
Best of luck as you pursue your residency training.

David Kramer, MD
Program Director