Surgical Critical Care Fellowship

NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst is part of an integrated public health care system of 11 New York City hospitals in the largest hospital consortium in the country. Elmhurst Hospital Center (EHC) resides in the county of Queens which has a population of 2.4 million that treats the highest percentage of uninsured individuals in the NYC Health + Hospitals/ System. Our community which is considered the western portion of Queens has been considered the “crossroads of the world.” We have over 112 countries represented and over 160 languages spoken with a poverty rate of 15 percent.

As a member of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation and affiliated with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai for over 50 years, EHC is the major healthcare provider for nearly 900,000 residents of Western Queens County. With over 27,000 admissions and more than 700,000 ambulatory care and emergency visits annually, EHC is one of the city’s busiest healthcare facilities.

Clinical Curriculum at The Surgical Trauma Intensive Care Unit

We have a strong Surgical Trauma Intensive Care Unit (STICU) presence at Elmhurst Hospital Center. With the addition of an American College of Surgeons (ACS) verified Level 1 Trauma Center, we have increased our volume and excellence to our community. We have over a 1,000 admissions per year to our STICU and over 1,500 admissions to the Trauma Service.

In the STICU, the fellow will increase their basic skills and core knowledge about diseases, disorders, and conditions; diagnoses and assessment methods; and surgical procedures that fall within surgical critical care and trauma. Not only will they enhance their knowledge, but they will also gain experience communicating with Elmhurst's ethnically diverse patients and families; improving their practices in critical care and correlating with a larger scale health care system.

Each fellow will be competent in each of the six core competencies outlined by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME); patient care, medical knowledge, practice based learning and improvement, interpersonal and communication skills, professionalism, and systems based practice provide the foundation for the program’s goals and objectives.

EHC provides a city hospital environment within the largest city in the country providing an enormous experience in surgical critical care and extensive Trauma experience in both penetrating and blunt injuries. In addition to the clinical experience, the fellow will be involved in a peer journal publication with presentations. The hospital in conjunction with Mount Sinai are the sites for the fellow to become an instructor in Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS), Advanced Surgical Skills for Exposure in Trauma (ASSET) and Advanced Trauma Operative Management (ATOM) in the near future.

The majority of the fellow’s education will take place at NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst. The prime education process is a multidisciplinary approach to patient care/education by the bedside in the Surgical Trauma Intensive Care Unit. In addition, education including procedures will occur in the medical intensive care unit, the cardiac care unit, the emergency room, the operating room, the surgical floors and post anesthesia care unit at EHC. A different experience will involve being at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai for about half of the year with experience in ICU specialties. The ACGME approved fellowship diploma will be under Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai with Elmhurst designation.

Our board certified faculty will assist each fellow in the development of bedside procedural skills, management of complex surgical patients and development of professional attitudes necessary to assist patients and their families recover from critical illness. We will provide a unique experience that will allow fellows to understand the challenges of working in a larger municipal health care system, but will also allow the fellow to pursue an academic career if they so choose.

How to Apply

Our program accepts applications through the Surgical Critical Care and Acute Care Surgery Fellowship Application Service (SAFAS). Prospective fellow must either be citizen or have permanent residency and have graduated from an Accredited Surgical Residency Program. MD/DO are welcome to apply.

Training Sites: Elmhurst Hospital Center, Queens Hospital Center, Mount Sinai Hospital
Number of fellows: 2
Length of fellowship: 1 year

If you have any questions regarding the application process, please contact Kripa Gurung, our Fellowship Coordinator, at gurungk@nychhc.org.

Electives
Fellows are also invited to participate in electives at Elmhurst Hospital Center and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital, which include:

  • Trauma Service
  • Acute Care Surgery
  • Medical Intensive Care Unit
  • Transplant Intensive Care Unit
  • Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Unit
  • Department of Anesthesiology
  • Pulmonary Critical Care
  • Neurosciences Intensive Care Unit 
  • Cardiac Intensive Care Unit
  • Research

Educational Didactics and Conferences

  • Daily Noon Lectures
  • Bi-weekly Surgical Critical Care Journal Club
  • Monthly Combined Neurosurgery/Surgical Critical Care Journal Club
  • Surgery Trauma Morbidity & Mortality
  • Basic Science Lecture
  • Institute for Critical Care Medicine Grand Rounds
  • Surgery Journal Club
  • Friday Lecture Series
  • Trauma Grand Rounds
  • Mount Sinai Health System/Elmhurst Hospital Center Neurotrauma Conference
  • SIM Lab
  • Interdisciplinary Surgical Critical Care/Pulmonary/Medicine Conference
  • ASSET/ATLS Student and Instructor development

Leadership and Administration

Navin D. Bhatia, MD, FACS
Director, Surgical/Trauma Intensive Care Unit
Program Director, SCC Fellowship
NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst
Assistant Professor of Surgery
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Email: bhatian1@nychhc.org
Pronouns: he/him/his

Kripa Gurung, MHA
Program Coordinator, Surgical Critical Care Fellowship
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai / Elmhurst Hospital Center
79-01 Broadway, Elmhurst, NY 11373
Email: gurungk@nychhc.org