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Faculty of Health Sciences

Department of Anesthesia

Clinical Rotations

Our Program at McMaster University provides its clinical experience at the teaching hospitals in the city of Hamilton, Ontario. Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) and St. Joseph’s Healthcare represent the affiliated teaching hospitals. HHS has 3 acute care institutions: General Campus, Juravinski Campus, and McMaster Campus.

Expandable List

Electives are an essential component of the Program with great flexibility to accommodate the individual needs of each resident. Depending on one’s background and base specialty, electives enable each trainee to round out and/or build on their skill set. Electives both in and outside of Hamilton are possible depending on one’s learning needs and career goals.

Common electives include:

 Anesthesia Palliative Care
 ECHO Radiology
 ECMO/MSICU  Research
 Ethics/End of Life Respirology
 Infectious Disease  Thoracic Surgery
 Nephrology  Toxicology
 Neuro Critical Care  Trauma
Trillium Gift of Life  Ultrasound
Community ICU electives are encouraged for those residents planning for such a career. Many options are available in nearby cities or with alumni from our Program. Examples of such locations are:
  • Brantford General Hospital (Brantford, Ontario)
  • Credit Valley Hospital (Mississauga, Ontario)
  • Grand River Hospital (Kitchener, Ontario)
  • Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital (Burlington, Ontario)
  • Oakville-Trafalgar Memorial Hospital (Oakville, Ontario)
  • Peterborough Regional Health Centre (Peterborough, Ontario)
  • Royal Victoria Hospital (Barrie, Ontario)
  • St. Catharines General Hospital (St. Catharines, Ontario)
  • St. Mike’s Hospital (Toronto, Ontario)
  • Toronto General Hospital (Toronto, Ontario)
  • Trillium Health Centre (Mississauga, Ontario)

The General Site was founded in 1848 as the first hospital in Hamilton as the Hamilton General Hospital. It is a regional centre of excellence in cardiovascular care, neurosciences, trauma and burn treatment. It is also a research centre, home to the Population Health Research Institute and the development of the future David Braley Cardiac, Vascular and Stroke Research Institute.

The General Site is a regional centre of excellence for several clinical services including the following types of care:

  • General medical care
  • General surgical care
  • Trauma
  • Neurosciences (Neurology/Stroke Unit, Spine Surgery and Neurosurgery)
  • Cardiovascular medicine (Heart Investigation Unit)
  • Cardiovascular surgery
  • Vascular surgery
  • Burn unit
  • ECLS

This site has more than 300 acute care beds. There is a 16-bed ICU (ICU East) and a 10-bed ICU (ICU South) which accommodate the care of most critically ill patients at this site. These two units have expertise in the care of neurosurgical, vascular and trauma patients as well as general medical-surgical experience. The Regional Burn Unit is associated with ICU South. This site is also the regional referral centre for cardiovascular medicine and surgical care. The Heart Investigation Unit consists of 4 catheterization laboratories and a 32-bed recovery unit. There are 9 interventional cardiologists and 6 cardiac surgeons. The cardiovascular ICU (ICU West) is an 18-bed unit caring for such patients.

The attending ICU staff include faculty from Anesthesia, Medicine and Surgery. The intensivists rotate on a weekly basis, from Thursday to Thursday. The Site Director of ICU East and ICU South is Dr. Steven Skitch and the Site Director of ICU West is Dr. Julian Owen.

The Henderson Site began as the Mount Hamilton Hospital in 1911 and served the veterans of the first war. In 1954, the Henderson General Hospital opened as a 322-bed hospital. Through the years the Henderson has become an integral part of the mountain community and supports the Juravinski Cancer Centre. As of 2011, the newly constructed Juravinski Hospital with a state-of-the-art ICU has been fully functional.

The Juravinski Site has more than 300 beds and a 19-bed ICU. This site provides acute inpatient and palliative care, diagnostic services and an educational environment to support the needs of patients requiring the following types of care:

General medical care

  • General surgical care
  • Advanced digestive diseases care (including regional gastroenterology program)
  • Hepatobiliary surgery
  • Colorectal surgery
  • Hematology and hematologic oncology (including BMT program)
  • Regional plasmapheresis program
  • Medical oncology
  • Radiation oncology
  • Major gynecologic surgery
  • Orthopedic surgery

The attending ICU staff include faculty from Respiratory Medicine, Anesthesiology, Gastroenterology, and General Medicine. The intensivists rotate on a weekly basis, from Friday to Friday. The Site Director is Dr. Hailey Hobbs.

St. Joseph’s Healthcare has been an active hospital in Hamilton for over 118 years. It has grown into a multi-site, regional, tertiary, academic health sciences centre. It is home to Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health, the high-tech Brain-Body Institute, the Father O’Sullivan Research Centre, the Centre for Minimal Access Surgery and the Centre for Evaluation of Medicine. The main campus has more than 600 acute care beds and 15 critical care beds.

 

This site provides acute inpatient and diverse outpatient care, diagnostic services and an educational environment to support the needs of patients requiring the following types of care:

  • General medical care
  • General surgical care
  • Thoracic surgery
  • Head and neck surgery
  • Vascular surgery
  • Bariatric surgery program
  • Nephrology (including regional dialysis unit and renal transplant program)
  • Firestone institute for Respiratory Health

The attending ICU staff include faculty from Anesthesia, Medicine and Surgery.?The intensivists rotate on a weekly basis, from Friday to Friday. The Chief of Service is Dr. Mark Soth