Led by Program Director Dr. Jeremy L. Ward, M.D., FACS since 2019, The Baylor College of Medicine Surgical Critical Care Program’s mission is to provide Fellows with a diverse and broad-based experience in all aspects of Surgical Critical Care through the multiple health care systems and surgical ICUs within Baylor College of Medicine. The fellowship strives to continually improve the experience and curriculum for the fellows to maximize the opportunities offered at Baylor College of Medicine. The fellowship has expanded and offers three focus tracks: two 2-year Acute Care Surgery positions which include 1-year of ACGME approved Surgical Critical Care, one 1-year traditional Surgical Critical Care position, and one 1-year Pediatric Surgical Critical Care position.
This is accomplished through three affiliated hospitals within the Texas Medical Center, with diverse patient populations, disease processes, and faculty within the Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery. The affiliated hospitals and ICU's include Ben Taub Hospital Trauma Surgical Intensive Care Unit, Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center Surgical Intensive Care Unit, Thoracic Surgical Intensive Care Unit, and Cardiovascular Surgery Recovery Intensive Care Unit, Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center Surgical Intensive Care Unit, and Texas Children’s Hospital Pediatric Surgical Intensive Care Unit. These ICU's provide extensive clinical exposure for the critical care fellows to have significant experience and attain proficiency in the management of a diverse array of critically ill surgical adult and pediatric patients. In addition, at each facility, the Surgical Critical Care Fellows assume supervisory and administrative roles in each ICU under supervision and mentorship of each of the assigned faculty. The length of the educational program is 24 months for the Acute Care Surgery tack and 12 months traditional and pediatric tracks. The monthly schedule for the ACS and traditional fellows includes rotations through the Ben Taub Hospital TSICU (3 months), BSLMC Surgical ICU (3 months), Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center Thoracic Surgical ICU (2 months), BSLMC CV-recovery unit (1 month), and MEDVAMC SICU (2 months). Non-ICU elective rotations complete the schedule and are presently being expanded. The Pediatric Critical Care Resident will follow a rigorous schedule at Texas Children’s, rotating in the Pediatric Surgical ICU, PICU, NICU for three months, CVICU, Burn Unit, and then rotating at Ben Taub Hospital TSICU for two months.
In addition to the extensive clinical experience, a robust didactic curriculum is provided. The foundation of the curriculum is the weekly Core Conference which covers a broad array of topics in critical care. Additionally, fellows participate in a variety of workshops and educational conferences through the department and multidisciplinary critical care efforts, such as ultrasound, difficult airway, and cardiac device workshops, ASSET course, and the Advances in Critical Care conference.
For the Acute Care Surgery fellows, the second year provides a robust clinical and operative experience. Fellows are appointed as clinical instructors and rotate between Ben Taub Hospital and Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center every two months. The year is structured to provide faculty support and mentorship to the fellows to foster development and progression to independence. As a major Level 1 Trauma Center with relatively high percentage of patients presenting with penetrating injury, Ben Taub provides significant exposure to complex trauma and robust emergency general surgery from an underserved patient population. Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center has a robust and growing emergency general surgery service and sees many medically and surgically complex patients and diseases. To supplement this experience, the fellows have additional operative experience through affiliated faculty in the community for specialty cases such as sternotomy, cardiac surgery, carotid endarterectomy, and femoral-popliteal bypass to ensure proficiency with these less common exposures. During the two year fellowship, to foster development of the fellows in alignment with their career goals, they will engage in mentorship with research faculty, ICU directors, trauma medical director, and/or educational leaders, and fellows can participate in early career development programs through Baylor.
Jeremy Ward, M.D., FACS
Associate Professor of Surgery
Division of Trauma, Bariatric and Acute Care Surgery
Program Director, Surgical Critical Care Fellowship
Baylor College of Medicine
Medical Director, Trauma Surgical ICU
Ben Taub Hospital