Anesthesiology Resident Information

Stony Brook University Department of Anesthesiology

Residency Program

Clinical Training

The Teaching Hospitals

Clinical Divisions

Clinical Training

From the outset the department has maintained a fully accredited residency training program. Beginning in July 2008, we will be a four-year program, full incorporating the Clinical Base Year (CBY). The CBY will consist primarily of rotations in the Departments of Medicine and Surgery, including two ICU months; one month in the Emergency Room and one month in Pain Management. Whenever possible, the CBY residents will have the opportunity fo interact with faculty and residents in the Department of Anesthesiology.

Three groups of residents undergo training in each of the three clinical anesthesia years of training (CA-1, 2 and 3 years equivalent to PGY 2, 3 and 4). There is large variety in a very substantial caseload. All specialties and subspecialties are represented; no single pathology predominates. All anesthetics are delivered by residents under the direction of an attending anesthesiologist. This supervision is given 24 hours per day, either on a one-to-one basis or, at most, in a ratio of one attending for two residents. It is an expression of our standard: optimal care, for all patients, at all hours. This applies not only in the operating rooms, but also in the obstetrical delivery suite, the intensive care units and the pain clinic.

Residents and attendings make their separate preanesthetic visits. Thereafter, the resident proposes a comprehensive plan for preoperative preparation, intra-operative monitoring, anesthetic management and postoperative care to the attending anesthesiologist. After conferring together, the resident performs the anesthetic under the direct supervision of the attending.

Because anesthesiology has become a critical care medicine specialty, our clinical efforts must be supported and facilitated by various invasive and non-invasive monitoring techniques. Under the leadership of the Department of Anesthesiology, a uniform, hospital-wide monitoring system has been designed that is the most sophisticated and by far the largest in the world--as befits a hospital that emphasizes intensive care. The system is supported by an advanced computer system for on-line trend analysis of monitored data, correlation and statistical analysis of any two parameters, computation of hemodynamic and respiratory data and derived values, entry of laboratory data, and automated alpha-numeric and graphic printing of a complete patient care record.

Dr. Alvin Bicker demonstrates his computerized scheduling system at the ASA meeting

In addition to their ICU experience, our residents administer well over 500 anesthetics in each of their three years of training. Many patients receive the benefit of regional anesthesia and nerve blocks. More importantly, the patients present all the taxing problems and complications one is likely to encounter in an operating room, obstetrical delivery suite or intensive care unit.

This clinical instruction may be strenuous and demanding; it is alleviated by the strong personal relationship between attending and resident and by certain amenities, such as lunches, coffee breaks, and relief from clinical assignment following night call. In addition, residents are on call every fourth night. In accord with New York State Law, residents do not work more than 80 hours per week maximum.

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Teaching Hospitals

Resident training in Anesthesiology is provided in two medical centers: Stony Brook University Medical Center and, to a lesser extent, the Northport Veterans Administration Hospital.

University Hospital

Stony Brook University Medical Center functions as a private institution, though owned by the university. Its primary purpose is to provide undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate education to medical students, residents and physician-specialists. Secondly, it is mandated to serve as a tertiary care referral facility for a population in Suffolk and Eastern Nassau counties of 2 million that is still growing rapidly. Thirdly, the integration of school and hospital is meant to promote extensive clinical research in which all medical staff is encouraged to participate.

Stony Brook University Medical Center admitted is first patient in 1980. It has met with continued success and has experienced phenomenal growth. Though initially intended to have 540 beds with 16 operating rooms, plans are in progress for expansion to 600 beds and 18 or possibly even 20 operating rooms. The hospital has official designation as a Third-Level Perinatal Center, a Regional Transplantation Center, a Trauma Center and a Burn Center. It has its own helicopter service and neonatal ambulance transport system.

Tertiary care is provided in 9 intensive care units, including one for anesthesia care (AICU) that is staffed around the clock. The others serve general surgery, trauma, burn, pediatric, neonatal, general medicine, cardiology, and cardiac surgery patients. An unusually high proportion, 22%, of the total bed capacity is assigned to these units. The anesthesia department staffs and administers the AICU and is actively involved in the others. The obstetrical delivery suite is staffed by anesthesiologists on a 24-hour basis, under the direction of two full-time subspecialists in obstetrical anesthesiology. A multi-disciplinary approach to patient care is the rule; anesthesia residents and attendings are members of the perinatal care team.

Stony Brook University Medical Center strives for excellence in patient care. The full-time attending staff of approximately 350 physicians has been recruited from outstanding academic center. They are supported by a young and highly trained staff that consists of N.P.'s, P.A.'s and R.N.'s. High technology, advanced instrumentation, and full computerization with sophisticated, specially designed software characterize the hospital.

VA Hospital Northport

The Medical-Surgical Pavilion at the Veterans Administration Medical Center at Northport was built in 1972 specifically to serve as a major campus of the Stony Brook Medical School. The surgical facilities include five operating rooms and a cystoscopy suite. Anesthesia and monitoring equipment in the operating suite, recovery room and intensive care areas is state-of-the-art.

The VA Hospital is an integrated facility. The clinical services are directed by the academic departmental chairmen and supervised by the Dean of the Medical School, exactly as is the case at University Hospital. The residency training program is similarly integrated.

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