Rotation Facilities

The Los Angeles General Medical Center is the primary teaching site providing residents a unique opportunity to spend 16 months of their 36-month curriculum caring for patients in a large, Level I Trauma center. The diversity of pathology provides the resident with an unparalleled, supervised clinical experience permitting progressive responsibility by gradually assigning residents to increasingly challenging cases to prepare the trainee for independent practice and/or further specialized training. The medical center is also the site for delivery of the core curriculum including daily lectures and weekly grand rounds.

The Los Angeles General Medical Center, which is the largest medical complex of its kind in the country, serves as the tertiary referral center for Los Angeles County as well as much of Southern California. Here, residents gain experience in a public hospital setting working on cases ranging from minor elective operations to complex innovative surgical procedures. The Los Angeles General Medical Center Anesthesiology and Surgical Trauma Team has the enviable record of having one of the best survival rates for trauma patients in the country.

Keck Medicine of USC serves as a focused training site for four core rotations: cardiac, pain, thoracic and neurosurgical anesthesia. It also serves as the site for six months of CA3 advanced clinical rotations in thoracic, cardiac, vascular, regional, transplant and neurosurgery. Residents gain experience in this private tertiary care center by participating in direct patient care and weekly educational sessions.

USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center provides comprehensive care for patients in its affiliated hospitals and outpatient clinics, and conducts hundreds of clinical trials, offering the latest in innovative cancer treatments

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has designated the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center as one of the nation’s 41 comprehensive cancer centers, a select group of institutions providing leadership in cancer treatment, research, prevention, and education. USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center has held this designation since 1973, when it was named as one of the first eight comprehensive cancer centers.

CHLA provides the resident an intense experience in the care of children in a major freestanding quaternary care children’s hospital complementing the experience with neonates and infants. Rotation provides the resident with substantial clinical exposure during the two month CA-2 rotation experience. The rotation provides core experience in pediatrics and prepares residents for a CA-3 advanced pediatric anesthesia rotation at the Los Angeles General Medical Center.

The Cedars-Sinai Medical Center rotation provides a focused experience in the care of women and their newborns. There are approximate 950 deliveries per month including 325 C-sections per month at Cedars Sinai. This private patient setting complements the delivery experience in a public setting of Los Angeles General Medical Center. The rotation includes daily educational sessions focused on obstetric services.

At the Keck Medicine of USC Outpatient Surgery Center, our board-certified surgeons and anesthesiologists, as well as our nurses and support staffs are committed to providing world-class care to patients. Types of outpatient surgeries performed include eye, gynecologic, orthopaedic surgery, otolaryngology – head and neck surgery, pain management, plastic and urologic surgery.

The Fresh Tissue Dissection Lab (FTDL) offers a unique opportunity for residents and medical students to practice hands-on airway management skills in a stress-free setting utilizing a fresh cadaver model. In addition to bag-valve-mask ventilation and direct laryngoscopy, other airway skills are taught including video laryngoscopy, intubating LMA, retrograde-wire intubation as well as emergency airway procedures, such as needle and open cricothyroidotomy. The trainee is able to perform each of these procedures directly on the cadaver. Beginning early on in their training the anesthesia interns also take part in clinical skills training in the FTDL during which they are taught how to perform procedures such as chest-tube thoracostomy and central line placement. As senior residents, they will have the opportunity to take part in teaching some of these skills to the junior residents in the lab. The FTDL is an exceptional training platform allowing residents to practice their procedural skills and develop the confidence needed to provide the best care to their patients.

The Fresh Tissue Dissection Lab (FTDL) offers a unique opportunity for residents and medical students to practice hands-on airway management skills in a stress-free setting utilizing a fresh cadaver model. In addition to bag-valve-mask ventilation and direct laryngoscopy, other airway skills are taught including video laryngoscopy, intubating LMA, retrograde-wire intubation as well as emergency airway procedures, such as needle and open cricothyroidotomy. The trainee is able to perform each of these procedures directly on the cadaver. Beginning early on in their training the anesthesia interns also take part in clinical skills training in the FTDL during which they are taught how to perform procedures such as chest-tube thoracostomy and central line placement. As senior residents, they will have the opportunity to take part in teaching some of these skills to the junior residents in the lab. The FTDL is an exceptional training platform allowing residents to practice their procedural skills and develop the confidence needed to provide the best care to their patients.

The Simulation Center (at the Los Angeles General Medical Center) houses a METI state of the art Human Patient Simulator (HPS) fully automatic, high-fidelity patient simulator specifically designed for training in anesthesia as part of the curriculum for both Anesthesiology Residents and the Student Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs).

The HPS is the only patient simulator with the ability to provide respiratory gas exchange, anesthesia delivery, and patient monitoring with real physiological clinical monitors. Our anesthesiologists and CRNAs have been specifically trained to run high-fidelity simulation scenarios and debriefings.

Simulation in anesthesiology allows trainees to experience rare, but serious conditions or circumstances that may occur in the course of ones career but perhaps not during their training. These circumstances can be experienced realistically and without risk to patients in a controlled setting designed to promote learning. It additionally allows the teaching faculty to address a problem area in a safe, non-threatening setting to help in the professional growth and development of our trainees.

Our Simulation Center training provides:

• Enhancement of student learning and knowledge through communication, leadership and critical thinking
• Improvement of assessment and psychomotor skills through mastery learning
• Provision of real life, relevant, and dynamic clinical scenarios
• Translation of knowledge and skills for crisis care management of patients
• Involvement in settings to exemplify systems-based strategies
• Utilization of structured, facilitated and modified debriefing techniques
• Performance of formative and summative feedback and evaluation

The faculty of the Simulation Center provide evidence based education and instruction founded in sound pedagogical techniques. The core faculty is dedicated to the enhancement of the professional practice of anesthesia and provides a supportive learning environment best suited to meet the high quality clinical and academic standards of the university.

Simulation Center Contacts:
Tara Humphrey, MD
Tara.Humphrey@med.usc.edu

Charlotte Garcia, CRNA, EdD, CHSE
charlotg@usc.edu