Surgical Critical Care Fellowship Department Information

Each year more than 4000 patients are admitted to the trauma/surgical critical care service at LVHN, with 85 percent suffering from blunt injuries and 15 percent from penetrating wounds. The average daily census of trauma patients is 35. LVHN provides trauma service to approximately 1.8 million residents living in a 10-county area. The LVHN MedEvac air evacuation service flies more than 1,000 trauma victims to LVHN yearly.

The trauma/surgical critical care team is responsible for supervising a trauma operating room, two trauma resuscitation bays, a 16-bed trauma/neurosurgical intensive care unit, a 12-bed surgical intensive care unit and an 18-bed burn unit. The program is supervised by a full-time director and is supported by nine trauma/critical care surgeons. Three full-time burn surgeons staff the burn unit, which is a regional center for northeastern Pennsylvania. Trauma surgeons are available in-house 24 hours a day. Two general surgery residents and two emergency medicine residents are assigned to the service. Fourth-year medical students are assigned to this service for an elective rotation as requested.

Additional support is provided by a trauma nurse coordinator, trauma/surgical critical care office and secretary, and a program development office with a trauma quality improvement coordinator.