General Information

EM/CCM Residency Scholar Track:

The Department of Emergency Medicine is committed to providing our trainees the opportunity to immerse themselves in critical care medicine. We have created an EM/CCM scholar track for our Residents with the goal of fostering interest in this growing subspecialty. This track meets on a monthly basis for educational lectures, case presentations, and journal article discussions. The Residents have the opportunity for hands-on procedure labs in technical skills such as bronchoscopy and ultrasonography. The scholar track also fosters the opportunity for the Residents to interact with mentors in the Critical Care subspecialty with the intent of sparking interest in a lifelong pursuit of this discipline. This opportunity is further strengthened by the available seamless transition after Residency into our Multi-disciplinary Critical Care Medicine Fellowship.


Trauma Critical Care (TCC):

Our Emergency Department boasts a 12 bed (flex to 18 bed) dedicated Trauma and Critical Care Unit. This area operates on a 24/7 basis as the Intensive Care Unit of the Emergency Department and is staffed by specialty physicians, nurses, and patient care technicians who are focused on providing emergent care to the critically ill patient. Our patients will encounter state of the art critical care medicine services that may include comprehensive monitoring devices, rescue airway equipment, invasive access lines, ultrasonography, bronchoscopy, bedside life-saving surgical techniques, and radiographic imaging studies, amongst other interventions. We will provide our patients with the appropriate resuscitation, optimization of hemodynamics, and needed interventions to combat their disease pathophysiology. Our goal is to start critical care at hour ONE as they enter our department with a seamless transition to one of our many in-patient ICUs.


EM/CCM Research:

The Department of Emergency Medicine is actively taking part in the future of the subspecialty of EM/CCM by supporting and promoting various research avenues. Current Faculty projects include a wide range of interests such as resuscitation optimization by non-invasive hemodynamic devices, imaging and management of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, sedation techniques to minimize delirium, stroke protocols, appropriate antibiotic dosing, and ultrasonography utilization in critical care Medicine. We will continue to push forward the boundaries of critical care medicine with the ultimate goal of providing appropriate life saving care to our patients.


Neurology / Critical Care Medicine Focus:

“Time is brain.” This mantra is well known amongst the Critical Care Medicine Neurology specialists that practice within the Department of Emergency Medicine at Washington University in Saint Louis. Our Faculty serve as directors of acute stroke care at the medical center. We are committed to timely diagnosis and correct interventions when a patient with a devastating neurologic disaster presents to our Trauma Critical Care Medicine area. Our Physicians work in close conjunction with the Departments of Neurology and Neurosurgery, making sure that critically ill patients are evaluated, triaged, treated, and seamlessly admitted to our in-patient Neuro Critical Care Medicine Unit


EM/CCM Simulation:

“Practice makes perfect.” This motherly adage has been passed on for generations and the Department of Emergency Medicine believes this to be true in providing optimal care to our critically ill patients. In conjunction with our EM subspecialty of Simulation, we provide our trainees with opportunities to evaluate, stabilize, diagnosis, and treat critically ill patients. Often these first encounters with the critically ill are experienced by the Residents in the protective womb of the simulation center on state of the art “training mannequins”. Practice scenarios are put together to represent real critical ill patient presentations and Residents are forced to manage their team as they stabilize and intervene, all while being observed and evaluated. The end goal is to provide our trainees with critical care medicine patient encounters and practice prior to real-life treatment is expected in the Trauma Critical Care Medicine area.