Training Environments
Students and emergency medicine residents have the opportunity to experience the full spectrum of emergency medical care across our three training sites. While our primary site, UVMMC, affiliated with the UVM Larner College of Medicine, is the primary academic
environment, our two community hospitals provide a unique experience in many ways. Clinical decision-making and management decisions in community emergency departments often differs from those in major academic teaching hospitals. In addition,
trainees benefit from more one-on-one teaching and procedural experience in our outside hospitals. The Department of Emergency Medicine shares its academic mission with the community hospitals across Vermont and northeastern New York, fostering
collaboration and demonstrating its commitment to providing outstanding emergency care across the Vermont Health Network.
University of Vermont Medical Center
The University of Vermont Medical Center (UVMMC) is a regional referral center for approximately 1 million people in Vermont and Northeastern New York, and a community hospital for 160,000 residents of Chittenden and Grand Isle counties in Vermont.
Currently with 562 beds, UVMMC serves as the primary academic medical center for the Robert Larner College of Medicine, and includes a Level 1 Trauma Center, the UVM Children’s Hospital, the UVM Cancer Center, and the only Neonatal
ICU in Vermont. As the only academic medical center in Vermont, UVMMC provides a training environment for approximately 300 residents across 17 different training programs, as well as 25 fellowship programs. With about 68,000 visits per year,
the ED at UVMMC sees the full spectrum of clinical presentations. On each shift, students and residents will see many patients from the local community, as well as many complex and critically ill patients transferred in from outside hospitals
for advanced sub-specialty care. While students and residents will work closely with board-certified EM faculty in providing comprehensive care and performing procedures in the ED, they will also have access to many subspecialty services. Consulting
with residents, fellows, and attendings from UVMMC’s other programs, such as critical care, orthopedics, neurology, and cardiology, will provide students and residents with advanced knowledge while teaching them to build professional relationships
and collaborate around quality patient care. Many EM faculty at UVMMC are fellowship trained, and there is a strong academic focus and a dedication to teaching.
Central Vermont Medical Center
The Central Vermont Medical Center (CVMC) is a rural hospital in Berlin, VT with 122 beds, serving a population of 66,000. The CVMC Emergency Department (ED) has 25 beds, sees about 28,000 patient visits per year, and is staffed by board-certified emergency physicians and experienced physician assistants. With no other resident trainees, the CVMC ED providers are excited to provide a rural training site for Larner College of Medicine (LCOM) students and our emergency
medicine (EM) residents. This participating site provides a robust and unique rural EM experience in a community setting without immediate access to consultants from other specialties on-site. Experiencing this approach allows students and
residents to assess deficiencies in their medical knowledge and skills that might not have been apparent in the consultant-rich environment of the primary teaching hospital. The ED patient population is generally from the local community.
Thus, there is an emphasis on improving the patient experience “close to home” and treating the ED patients like “neighbors.” Trauma patients present a unique pattern of injuries, related to farming/logging equipment,
all-terrain vehicles, and various wilderness sporting endeavors. Students and residents learn the essential skill of recognizing the need for transfer to tertiary care facilities, as well as deciding when it is safe to transport critical patients.
During off-hours, the emergency physicians are the only in-house doctors at CVMC, except for a floor hospitalist, and will respond to any codes or airway emergencies in the hospital. The overall clinical experience differs from that at UVMMC
and provides an essential rural training experience to our EM residents and LCOM students.
Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital
Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital (CVPH) is a community hospital located in Plattsburgh, NY with 300 inpatient beds serving a wide catchment area of northeastern New York reaching up to the Canadian border. The ED cares for about 40,000 patients
per year, and is currently staffed primarily by board-certified emergency physicians, including many faculty members from UVMMC. Other than a family medicine residency program with occasional rotations in the ED, there are no other resident
trainees at this hospital. Students and residents benefit from a relatively high volume, high acuity ED experience, with access to some private attending consultants during daytime hours, as well as 24-hour cardiac catheterization lab access.
After hours, however, trainees will learn when it is indicated to call in private physician consultants from home, and when it might be appropriate to observe a patient overnight until daytime resources are more readily available. Students
and residents experience the differences in patient care without immediate access to consultants from other specialties on-site.