What are the demographics of the patients I will take care of at Temple? 

• We are passionate about the patients we serve. Temple is a large, safety-net hospital with well-regarded specialty care, drawing many patients from the North Philadelphia and the Philadelphia suburbs that are diverse in their racial, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. We are proud that Temple University Hospital ranked #1 in PA and #13 in the nation for racial inclusivity by the Lown Institute in 2021. Episcopal Hospital, one of our urban, satellite sites, treats a patient population that is primarily underserved and speaks Spanish as their first language. Jeanes hospital is one of our satellite sites located in the suburbs, with a patient population reflective of that. 

How are traumas managed between trauma surgery and EM? 

• Trauma patients are treated jointly by the EM team working in the department and the trauma surgery team.  

• The ED team is responsible for the “right side of the patient”, including central line placement, right sided chest tubes, the EFAST. The EM-3 is in charge of the trauma airway. 

• Due to the considerable amount of trauma seen in our department, all residents from both specialties have more than ample opportunity to become experts in the management and procedural aspects of trauma care. 

• We see an equal mix of blunt and penetrating trauma. We think our trauma experience provides an excellent framework for training you in the team-based care of some of our most critically ill patients. 

Does anesthesia get involved with emergency department airways? 

• In-house anesthesia is available and rarely will be called at the discretion of the ED team, but they are not notified and do not respond unless we call them. 

• Temple residents get quite comfortable with difficult medical and trauma airways. The EM senior residents manage trauma airways, and the EM junior residents manage medical airways. The EM attending serves as the “back-up” for both trauma and medical airways if needed by the residents.  

What ancillary resources are available for managing patients? 

• We have social work in the ED from early morning to late night and case management on-call to assist in acquiring equipment, medications, disposition, and follow-up to best meet our patient population’s needs and improve their health outcomes.  

• Our transport team is also charged with telephone follow-up to check on patients' improvement, medication acquisition, and follow up appointments.  

• We have a dedicated ED pharmacist who is a wonderful asset for everything from finding inexpensive treatment options for patients without insurance to complex resuscitation of crashing patients. 

What EMR do we use? 

• The inpatient, outpatient, and ED settings are all on EPIC. 

Do you have dictation software? 

• We absolutely do! We use Dragon 

What is our pediatric exposure? 

• There are four dedicated pediatric months, with a Pediatric ICU experience at St.Christopher’s Hospital for Children as an intern, and one Pediatric EM block each year at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. In addition, we provide a longitudinal pediatric EM experience throughout the residency program with intermittent shifts at St. Christopher’s throughout the three years of training. We do this to provide complete exposure to the seasonal variations in pediatric presentations and to avoid the degradation of pediatric knowledge and skills during adult EM months. 

• Additionally, our residents care for a mixed adult/pediatric population during EM months at Jeanes and Episcopal, and care for both adult and pediatric patients in our main ED.  

• Our residents are routinely sought out to take an active role in the management of sick pediatric patients at our outside rotation sites. 

What other clinical sites are incorporated into your program? 

• Refer to our Facilities page for extended info on all our residency sites. 

How many ICU months are integrated into our residency? 

• There are a total of 5 ICU months. 1st year: Pediatric ICU and Medical ICU; 2nd year: Burn ICU and Surgical/Trauma ICU; 3rd year: Medical ICU.  

• As a bonus, in the Medical ICU, the third year EM resident and the EM intern make up their own team. 

But seriously. Ask any resident about the unique and diverse patients we serve and have the privilege to treat.  We’re confident the strength of the clinical experience at Temple will be evident when you get to know us. We see a variety of presentations of pathology, severity of illness, social determinants of health, and get extremely comfortable with procedures.