The Surgical Critical Care Fellowship at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital (ZSFG) is a two-year fellowship in Surgical Critical Care (SCC) and Trauma and Emergency Surgery (ACS) set up to train the next generation of Critical Care leaders and educators who provide outstanding patient care to critically ill and injured patients.
Our fellowship was formally established in November 1999, and over that period, we have trained Surgeons, Anesthesiologists, and Internists. In 2001, we added the second fellowship year in Acute Care Surgery Fellowship at ZSFG/UCSF.
Program Overview
The SCC fellowship year is a 12-month ACGME approved fellowship.
The SCC Fellows are primarily based at ZSFG, a fully integrated teaching hospital in the UCSF, School of Medicine Hospital System, and the only Level 1 Trauma Center in San Francisco and Northern San Mateo Counties. In addition to their ZSFG rotations, the SCC Fellows rotate to the UCSF Moffitt-Long Hospital, where the parent General Surgery training program is based, and to the California Pacific Medical Center, Sutter Health (CPMC).
The schedule includes the following required rotations.
- ZSFG Surgical Intensive Care Unit (6 months)
- Moffit-Long Surgical Intensive Care Unit (1 month)
- Moffit-Long Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Unit (1 month)
- Moffit-Long Cardiothoracic Surgery (1 month)
- ZSFG Trauma (1 month)
- CPMC Hepatobiliary (1 month)
The fellow receives experience in the Intensive Care of blunt and penetrating trauma victims, the head injured patient, the injured child, burns and inhalation injuries, necrotizing soft tissue infection, post operative thoracic and vascular surgery, and complex abdominal surgery at San Francisco General Hospital. The resident also receives experience in the intensive care of solid organ transplantation, patients following major oncological surgery, including liver resection, Whipple procedures, and major surgical complications referred for care by outside institutions at the UCSF/ Moffitt-Long Hospital.
Each Fellow is typically on call one to two times a week. The Fellow takes call in turn with the other fellows and residents. Currently, each month there are two anesthesia residents, one general surgical resident, and one critical care resident. We also have residents from the obstetrical and gynecology service rotating and the medical service in the ICU. The medical students are on call with the residents and are supervised by the surgical critical care fellow. Each week the surgical critical care fellow gets one day off from their ICU responsibilities.
During the Trauma and Emergency Surgery (ACS) Fellowship year, the fellow will take regular in-house call as previously described and be available for major trauma surgical cases. The fellowship is designed to not interfere with the ACGME accredited program in general surgery.
Goals and Objectives for Training
The educational philosophy and program goals for the critical care fellowship are based on a multidisciplinary approach to critical care. In the SICU, there are faculty from multiple disciplines including Surgery, Anesthesia, Medicine and Neurology that work together closely. All the ICUs function on a “semi-open basis”, that means that the Critical Care Service cares for patients in close collaboration with the primary surgical service. This allows for close interaction and integration of the critical care fellows with the parent general surgery residents. The fellows will learn the material from didactic lectures and from bedside teaching by the entire faculty.
The UCSF Department of Surgery considers Trauma/Critical Care to be an integral component of General Surgery. The purpose of the postgraduate fellowship program is to prepare the residents to assure an academic leadership role in the fields of Trauma and Critical Care. The critical care fellows will acquire cognitive knowledge and manual skills required to care for a broad range of critical surgical illness.
Prerequisite Training/Selection Criteria
The applicant must have attained skill in the science and practice of surgery. Since receiving RRC accreditation, we have accepted only fully trained board eligible/certified surgeons who have successfully completed an ACGME (or equivalent) general surgery residency program. The selection process is a rigorous process of the submission of an application with three letters of recommendation, and a full day of applicant interviews with faculty and fellows at UCSF, School of Medicine. A selection committee will then decide who the best candidate is from our applicant pool.
No foreign degrees are accepted for this fellowship program.
How to Apply
Applications are accepted through the Surgical Critical Care Program Directors Society Application Service website. Applicant must participate in the Match
Important Dates
- Application accepted from Feb-July
- Interviews are scheduled between Jun-Aug
Program Director
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Professor of Surgery |
For Questions and More Information
Please contact:
Kate Goldman
Program Coordinator
Surgical Critical Care Fellowship
[email protected]
Tel: 415-206-4627
Fax: 415-206-5484
UCSF at ZSFG
Department of Surgery
1001 Potrero Ave, Ward 3A
San Francisco, CA 94110
Alumni
Please visit our list of current and past fellows which show current positions, years of fellowship, and links to current locations where available.