Acute Care Surgery
Provides a combination of trauma surgery and emergency general surgeries. Residents care for a diverse population of patients, ranging from those requiring critical care to outpatient and elective surgeries. The service also cares for the majority of inpatient general surgery consults.
Call is divided on average every third night for Chief Resident and midlevel residents, with guaranteed two weekends off per month. Interns are on a night float system divided between four or five interns.
Elective General Surgery
Consists of four independent services that operate on and care for a mixture of inpatient and outpatient surgical patients:
Colorectal Surgery
Provides residents an opportunity to experience patients in an outpatient clinic, perform colonoscopies and operate on colorectal disease. The service employs four colorectal surgeons.
Surgical Oncology
Provides residents an opportunity to care for patients with upper gastrointestinal, hepatobiliary, pancreatic and breast cancer. The service employs two dedicated surgical oncologists and additional surgeons caring for breast disease.
Minimally Invasive Surgery
Provides residents an opportunity to operate on and care for a population of bariatric patients while also training residents in robotic and limited incision techniques of laparoscopy. Additionally, residents perform many general surgical operations including laparoscopic cholecystectomy and herniorrhaphy. The service is a Center of Excellence for Bariatric Surgery and employs three surgeons.
Endocrine Surgery
Provides residents an opportunity to diagnose and treat disorders of the thyroid, parathyroid, adrenal and endocrine pancreas. Residents are expected to participate in an outpatient clinic that includes an experience of ultrasound-guided biopsies and laryngoscopy. The service employs two endocrine surgeons and one endocrine fellow.
Vascular Surgery
Residents participate in both open and endovascular surgeries. The service operates in both the main operating room and in the vein clinic procedure room. Residents are trained by six vascular surgeons and two vascular fellows. Additional experience in vascular surgery is gained on the Veterans Affairs General Surgery Rotation.
Cardiac and Thoracic Surgery
The cardiac and thoracic surgery service includes a progressive experience operating within the thoracic chamber. Residents gain proficiency in esophageal, pulmonary, chest wall and mediastinal operations as well as some experience with cardiac procedures. The service consists of four cardiothoracic surgeons.
Transplant Surgery
Experience on the transplant surgery service includes a close working relationship with the nephrology service at the main hospital. Residents participate in organ procurement, renal and pancreas transplantation and vascular access for renal failure patients. The program is staffed by three transplant surgeons.
Surgical Intensive Care Unit
This service manages all patients in the SICU, including general, trauma, neurosurgical, urological, orthopedic, plastic and gynecological surgery patients. The service is multidisciplinary, consisting of general surgery and anesthesia residents, and is staffed by critical care certified surgeons and anesthesiologists.
Pediatric Surgery
The pediatric surgery service cares for all pediatric patients requiring surgical evaluation, including experience in our NICU and PICU. The majority of services are provided at Baylor Scott & White McLane Children’s Medical Center in Temple, which provides experience in both ambulatory and more-complex surgical settings. The service allows residents to work with four pediatric surgeons.
Central Texas Veterans Health Care Center (Olin E. Teague VA)
The Central Texas Veterans Health Care Center is a busy hospital and provides additional general surgery, vascular surgery and thoracic surgery experience. Several of the Baylor Scott & White Medical Center – Temple staff rotates to the VA Hospital in addition to a core of VA staff general surgeons.
