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General Surgery

WellSpan York Hospital General Surgery Residency Program

Since 1944, the General Surgery Residency Program at WellSpan York Hospital has been producing clinically and technically excellent general surgeons. Our fully accredited program consistently exceeds ACGME requirements and provides the necessary resources for our residents to become certified by the American Board of Surgery. We have faculty dedicated to the training of our surgical residents, and are invested in the success of our program. Our residents take on broad responsibilities early in their education, and gain the ability to become leaders of our surgical teams.

With first-rate facilities for didactic and simulation training, WellSpan York Hospital provides a wealth of clinical material in a supportive environment. Upon graduation, our graduates are ready for independent practice and possess the skills and knowledge to seamlessly become leaders at their respective healthcare institutions.


Program Highlights

  • Level I Trauma Center
  • Chief Resident Clinic Service
  • Simulation Center
  • Rural/International Rotations

WellSpan York Hospital is a 596-bed community teaching hospital and the region's only accredited Level I Trauma Center.  We are the largest hospital within WellSpan Health, a clinically integrated network of more than 220 patient care locations, serving six counties in southcentral Pennsylvania.  

We have 17 operating rooms and perform over 15,000 surgeries annually.  An additional 11,000 outpatient surgeries are performed at our Apple Hill Outpatient Surgery Center. Surgeries are also performed in the advanced procedural and endoscopy suites.  Residents have access to 4 da Vinci Xi surgical systems to further their advanced surgical skills.  

The Emergency Department delivers care to over 85,000 patients annually. There are over 2,200 Trauma admissions per year (including blunt and penetrating). Our program is clinically oriented and provides the residents progressive supervised patient care responsibilities at all post graduate levels of training.

Operative experience is a strong component of the residency and begins in the junior years of training. We offer a large number and variety of cases across the spectrum of general surgery, including extensive exposure in surgical subspecialties. 

One of our most successful educational experiences is to provide autonomy to the chief residents during their rotation on the Surgical Resident Service. The service is staffed by attending physicians who provide immediate and direct supervision. Most importantly, the chief resident takes ownership of this service by the continuity of care provided to the patients. The chief resident evaluates the patient during their pre-operative visit, formulates a plan, and participates in intra-operative and post-operative care. 

We are committed to providing state-of-the-art teaching, with one of the centerpieces of our curriculum being The Kinsley Family Foundation Medical Simulation Center. The highly technical mock operating rooms and mannequin simulators enhance the technical skills training of our residents. We also provide equipment to practice skills for both FLS (Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery) and FES (Fundamentals of Endoscopic Surgery).

Integrated into our curriculum is an opportunity to rotate at two affiliated rural hospitals.  WellSpan Chambersburg Hospital and WellSpan Ephrata Community Hospital provide residents with the opportunity to work in a rural setting in Franklin and northern Lancaster counties. In addition, residents have the ability to operate with general surgeons, Ob/Gyn, Orthopedics, and ENT. This rotation allows residents to gain more autonomy and experience in other surgical specialties.

Due to the philanthropic interests from our faculty, our residents travel with surgical teams to provide surgical care to a variety of international locations. The residents have been involved in private mission trips as well as sponsorship with the York County Medical Foundation to participate in Ghana and Mauritania.

Inpatient Services

Acute care services are located strategically to provide optimal trauma and emergency resuscitation. These include radiology services, emergency department, operating room, surgical intensive care unit, post-anesthesia care unit, cardiac diagnostic lab and pulmonary function lab. 

Acute care facilities include a 60-bed intensive care unit. This includes a 20-bed Trauma/Surgical ICU.  Another 40 ICU beds are shared between surgical and medical patients. Post-operative cardiac patients are cared for in a separate Open Heart/Medical ICU.

The hospital has a 24-hour laboratory, blood bank and radiology services and an excelllent ancillary staff. Prompt delivery of support services aids in the delivery of excellent patient care and efficient utilization of resident time. Radiology services are available at any hour and our PACS system facilitates review of these studies.

Our hospital also has a Comprehensive Stroke Center, a state-of-the art Emergency Department, one of the region’s most advanced interventional heart and vascular suites, and the largest Level 3 neonatal intensive care unit in the region.

As part of WellSpan’s committment to expanding community access to advanced specialty care for complex conditions, a new 8-story surgical and critical care tower is set to be completed by the end of 2025.  This $225 million investment will provide larger, state-of-the-art surgical suites and will increase the number of our ICU beds to 96.

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