Anesthesiology Residency
Learn to care for patients the right way when they need it most during your Geisinger anesthesiology residency.
About the program
The clinical training, knowledge, skills, resources and experience you gain through Geisinger's Anesthesiology Residency will not only prepare you for board certification, but help you become a safe, competent and professional consultant anesthesiologist.
The Division of Anesthesiology consists of 90 staff anesthesiologists, 10 interventional pain medicine physicians, 24 anesthesiology residents, 222 nurse anesthetists, and two regional anesthesia and acute pain service nurses. They provide anesthesia and pain medicine-related services at 11 facilities:
- Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, PA
- Geisinger Healthplex Woodbine Outpatient Clinic, Danville, PA
- Geisinger Shamokin Area Community Hospital, Coal Township, PA
- Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center, Wilkes-Barre, PA
- Geisinger South Wilkes-Barre, Wilkes-Barre, PA
- Geisinger Bloomsburg Hospital, Bloomsburg, PA
- Geisinger Healthplex State College, State College, PA
- Geisinger Community Medical Center, Scranton, PA
- Geisinger Lewistown Hospital, Lewistown, PA
During your anesthesiology internship year (clinical base year) and first year of residency (CA-1 year), your resident rotations take place at the two Danville facilities, which are less than two miles from each other. In later years and during elective rotations, you can participate in educational and training activities at Geisinger Wyoming Valley. This capability allows for real-time distance learning during conferences, without the commute.
Message from the program director
With a long tradition of resident education, Geisinger's Department of Anesthesiology offers resident physicians just like you a myriad of clinical opportunities. You’ll find all subspecialties in the field of anesthesiology within the medical center, including advanced cardiac surgery, high-risk obstetrical care, pediatric and neonatal surgery, critical care medicine, surgery for transplantation, ambulatory surgery, neurosurgery and both acute and chronic pain management. Geisinger Medical Center serves as the region’s only Level I Trauma Center, and the Department of Anesthesiology plays a significant role in the leadership of the center’s nine intensive care units and the operating room.
Geisinger has enjoyed national recognition for decades as a leader in healthcare innovation. Our integrated health system, composed of providers, hospitals, clinics and an insurance company, aims to coordinate care and optimize the patient experience. As a resident physician, you need clinical exposure in the field of anesthesia, as well as an understanding of the practice environment in which they work. And we’re uniquely poised to offer you this experience.
Anesthesiology is a rapidly growing specialty that is constantly incorporating new technologies. Here, electronic health records have been in use for more than 18 years. With recent upgrades to anesthesia delivery equipment in our operating rooms, documentation of an anesthesia encounter is now all electronic. Mining this vast store of electronic patient data is one of many research opportunities available. Geisinger’s network of community physicians and home care facilities lets you gain experience in a role as a peri-operative medical specialist.
From its inception, Geisinger has always been a physician-led organization. Abigail Geisinger sought the top physician leaders of her time to create a hospital that ultimately became today's health system. In 1915, she advised her first surgeon-in-chief, Harold Foss, MD: “Make my hospital right; make it the best.” We honor Abigail Geisinger’s legacy as we educate residents in anesthesiology.
Kamran Husain, MD, MBA, FASA
Anesthesiology Residency Director
Program overview
ACGME-defined core competencies and milestones will guide your education and evaluation. A didactic education series will supplement your clinical and research education. Your knowledge, judgment, skills, experience and leadership role will continually increase throughout your anesthesiologist residency education and training. As you progress through the program, you will exhibit progressive responsibility, decision-making and the performance of technical tasks leading to independent practice and a consultative role by the conclusion of your residency.
The clinical case mix and volume, along with our Geisinger faculty expertise and resources, will help you easily fulfill the case and procedural anesthesiologist residency requirements as set forth by the Residency Review Committee of the ACGME and the American Board of Anesthesiology. Last year Geisinger performed more than 60,000 surgical procedures and more than 1,500 obstetric deliveries. In addition, many anesthetics were administered outside of surgical suites. The case mix included the full spectrum of adult, pediatric and neonatal procedures, including pediatric cardiac procedures and adult liver transplantation.
Your clinical curriculum is structured to include rotations through all general and specialty areas of anesthesiology. There are a number of unique required rotations that will enhance your education, including regional anesthesia/acute pain medicine, performance/quality improvement, research, out-of-OR anesthesia, advanced airway management, echocardiography, and operating room management. You will have up to six months of elective time in your last (CA-3) year of training.
Departmental faculty and faculty from other medical and surgical specialties will provide your didactic education. At the start of your clinical anesthesia education (CA-1 year), you’ll have a six-week daily introductory lecture series by core faculty and senior residents. After that, your didactic sessions will take place on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons from 3 to 5 p.m. You will attend these sessions in addition to departmental sessions held on Wednesday mornings (grand rounds, mortality & morbidity conference) and the brief morning report sessions.
Afternoon sessions cover the following:
- A wide range of anesthesia-related topics
- Case presentations
- Practice written and oral board exams
- Simulation
- Journal club
- Quality improvement and research topics and presentations
- Practice management issues
You will attend joint conferences with residents from other specialties quarterly. You will also have a monthly group session with the department chair and/or residency program director to discuss important issues.
As a graduation requirement, you’ll participate in quality improvement and research activities, present your scholarly work at local, regional or national meetings, or submit it for publication. You’ll be assigned to or choose a faculty mentor who will participate and guide you through these activities.
Additionally, we’ve established an anesthesiologist curriculum to educate you in quality and research methodologies. Resources within the department and throughout the organization are available to assist you and your faculty with scholarly activities. Geisinger's Henry Hood Center for Health Research opened in 2007 and conducts health services and epidemiologic and population genetics research in addressing problems such as obesity, autism, stroke, diabetes and hypertension. It complements the basic science research performed at the Siegfried and Janet Weis Center for Research and the Center for Clinical Studies.
Frequently asked questions