As a resident with the Department of Emergency Medicine, you will gain a diverse educational experience, leading to board certification. Through formal education and direct patient care, you will develop clinical skills with an emergency medicine team that cares for more than 140,000 patients each year.
Learn at one of Pennsylvania's largest teaching hospitals.
Graduate medical education is a valued tradition that began more than a half-century ago at Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN). LVHN offers the unique benefits of residency training in both a community hospital and a regional referral center. The hospital's high patient volume, dedicated teaching attendings and diversity of clinical services create an outstanding environment for graduate medical education.
LVHN has more than 950 beds in operation, and the educational experience is broadened by an aeromedical transport system that conducts flights for our regional Level I trauma center.
Program highlights
Rotations within the Lehigh Valley Reilly Children’s Hospital. As a resident, you will work in LVHN’s pediatric emergency room and rotate through the pediatric intensive care until, so you’ll become comfortable caring for the sickest of our pediatric patients.
Toxicology training. We currently have six emergency medicine attendings who are also board-certified in toxicology, and two toxicology fellows. Our toxicology fellowship earned accreditation in 2017 and graduated its first toxicologist in 2020. Our emergency medicine residents complete a toxicology rotation during their third year. This rotation provides both formal lectures and clinical experience in pharmaceutical overdoses, wilderness medicine such as snake bites and poisonous plants, and addiction medicine.
Brand new emergency department facilities. A new and expanded, state of the art emergency department is scheduled to open for patient care at LVH-Cedar Crest in December 2020. This emergency department will include 97 adult beds and 27 pediatric beds (approximately doubling the existing ED capacity), a critical care pod optimally designed for patients requiring close care and resuscitation, as well as several other mixed-acuity pods, and an express care pod. The department will have access to its own CT scanner, x-rays, as well as ultrasound equipment.
Sophisticated training tools. Your unique experience at the George E. Moerkirk Emergency Medicine Institute, which trains more than 10,000 students annually, features cutting-edge tools such as a human patient simulator.
Disaster and EMS training. Annual disaster drills are held during Grand Rounds, where we take out the Mobile Surge Tents, put on HAZMAT gear and learn about bioterrorism response, multi-casualty incident command and natural disaster response. You will have the opportunity to become an EMS Resident Medical Director for one of our many local EMS agencies, including MedEvac. You’ll also have the opportunity to provide acute medical care for participants and attendees at events such as NASCAR races at Pocono Raceway, the LVHN VIA Marathon and Bethlehem's widely acclaimed week-long Musikfest.
Individualized feedback. Our pod system allows for dedicated one-on-one time with an attending. As you grow in your role as a physician you will gain increased responsibility teaching junior residents and medical students. You will receive on-shift feedback as well as written feedback through the New Innovations website.
National-caliber lectures. Several of our faculty members are prominent national speakers. We also bring in national speakers from across the country nearly every month. These are the same speakers you will see at SAEM, ACEP, AAEM and ACOEP conferences.
Research experience. Research is a top priority, as is evidence-based medicine. We have many attendings who are dedicated to providing the most current medical care. Journal club occurs monthly, during which current articles are discussed in a group setting. All residents are required to participate in a research project. Staff members and researchers are available to assist at all times.
Alumni connections. We have graduates from New York to Florida, in the Midwest, the South and across the country in California, Oregon, Hawaii, Arizona and Alaska. Past graduates have completed toxicology fellowships in Arizona and California, a John Hopkins Disaster Fellowship, a toxicology fellowship with the CDC in Atlanta, and an ultrasound/pediatric emergency medicine fellowship in Georgia. Our graduates work for large and small private groups, are hospital employees and independent contractors.
Underrepresented in Medicine Scholarship. The Department of Emergency and Hospital Medicine is proud to offer four $1,000 scholarships for those whose backgrounds are underrepresented in medicine. Learn more.
We welcome you to explore our site to learn more about our residency program, LVHN and the Lehigh Valley. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.