Division of Acute Care Surgery, Trauma, and Surgical Critical Care

Trauma remains the leading cause of mortality and morbidity for individuals younger than 40 years of age. Organized trauma systems with specialized centers devoted to the evaluation and treatment of trauma are effective in reducing rates of death and disability associated with injury.

The trauma program at UK HealthCare is an American College of Surgeons-Committee on Trauma-accredited Level I trauma center. UK Hospital Trauma Center is the only center providing tertiary trauma care for central and southeastern Kentucky. The hospital serves as the regional referral center for the 49 Appalachian counties comprising eastern Kentucky as well as the 11 non-Appalachian counties surrounding Fayette County. The terrain serviced is largely mountainous and rugged, occupying approximately 20,000 square miles with a population base of 1.4 million. The trauma service admits over 3,500 adult trauma patients with over 1,400 high-level trauma activations.  UK Hospital Trauma Center is committed to providing timely, excellent and cost-effective care for patients with complex, multi-system trauma or single-system trauma requiring specialized surgical services.

UK provides residents unique opportunities to gain exposure and expertise in situations of both urban and rural trauma care. This comprehensive approach to trauma care and surgical critical care provides outstanding research and educational opportunities for residents interested in a career in trauma surgery or surgical critical care.

The hospital supports injury prevention programs throughout the state, ongoing research opportunities in the clinical sciences, and continuing medical education programs for Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS),  Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), and Rural Trauma Team Development Course (RTTDC).

The surgical critical care service provides consultative services for surgical patients in the intensive care units, giving experience in hemodynamic monitoring, ventilator management, nutritional support, sepsis, and organ failure. Residents rotate on the trauma and acute care surgery service during all years of training. The section has an ACGME-accredited surgical critical care fellowship with an approved complement of two fellows per year as well as an optional dedicated year as a trauma instructor.

Surgical Critical Care Fellowship

This is an ACGME-accredited program with an approved complement of two fellows per year. The fellowship comprises of clinical rotations including trauma ICU, emergency general surgery ICU, medicine ICU, cardiothoracic ICU, neurosurgery ICU, and two electives provided in one-month rotations.

Physician Assistant Residency in Acute Care Surgery

The University of Kentucky (UK) College of Health Sciences offers a physician assistant surgery residency program in partnership with faculty from the UK Division of Acute Care Surgery, Trauma, and Critical Care Surgery.
The program is one year in duration and contains didactic instruction woven throughout 12 months of supervised clinical rotations. Clinical rotations may occur in the following areas: critical care (surgical and medical), trauma, emergency medicine, neurosurgery, cardiothoracic surgery, orthopedic surgery, anesthesia, and elective(s).