MDNews - Minnesota

COVER FEATURE Medical Education at Hennepin County Medical Center – Preparing Physicians for the New Realities in Health Care A FTER COMPLETING HER surgery residency at Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) and accepting a position at The Medical Center of Aurora in Colorado, Jodie Taylor, M.D., was unfazed by severe trauma cases. When the alpha alert came in just after midnight on July 20, she knew she would be walking into a challenging situation, but few surgeons face the onslaught of injuries rushing toward The Medical Center of Aurora in the aftermath of the movie theater shooting tragedy. Within moments, the emergency room filled with 18 victims in extreme distress. In the hours that followed, Dr. Taylor and four other surgeons operated nonstop. Afterward, Taylor reached out to the faculty at HCMC to express gratitude for the training she'd received. "This was perhaps the most frightening surgical experience a surgeon can face," says Meghan Walsh, M.D., Chief Medical Education Officer at HCMC. "Even in that overwhelming situation, Jodie's training kicked in. The surgeons who come out of our program are incredibly well-prepared because they do so much trauma and get so much experience doing surgical procedures. We take pride in the fact that our training prepared Jodie to respond with skill and expertise." 6 | Twin Cities MD NEWS I MDNEWS.COM As the first teaching hospital in Minnesota, HCMC serves as one of the University of Minnesota Medical School's major affiliate teaching hospitals. Approximately 100 medical students and 90–100 residents from the university train at HCMC each year. An additional 200 residents from medical schools across the country and abroad are drawn to HCMC, a Level 1 trauma center, for its nationally renowned residency training programs. Students and residents at HCMC benefit from a unique educational experience shaped by the hospital's mission. "The teaching hospitals in the Twin Cities are all very different in their patient populations, their cultures, and in the type of applicant they attract," explains Michael Belzer, M.D., Chief Medical Officer and Medical Director at HCMC and associate dean at the University of Minnesota Medical School. "We are a classic safety-net hospital. At the core of our mission is a commitment to care for underserved, uninsured, underinsured and vulnerable patients. Our patient population exposes students to unique care challenges not found at other hospitals. "Sixty percent of our patients are persons of color. We have a large number of patients in poverty and large Medicaid and uninsured populations. Our vibrant culture and robust multidisciplinary programs give residents a great deal of clinical responsibility in an environment that is very different from most private hospitals. Training encompasses a wide variety of circumstances so residents become very comfortable with very sick patients." Dr. Walsh agrees. "There are residents who want to spend their careers doing National Institutes of Health-funded PHOTOS © DAVID GINSBERG, ECLIPSE PRODUCTIONS By Marian Deegan

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