Surgical Critical Care Fellowships at Harborview Medical Center

Program Overview

Ronald V. Maier, MD, FACS

Founded in 1989 by Dr. Ronald V. Maier, the one-year ACGME-accredited fellowship in Surgical Critical Care is supported by the Department of Surgery at the University of Washington School of Medicine and located primarily at Harborview Medical Center. For over 30 years, the faculty of Department of Surgery Division of Trauma, Burn & Critical Care Surgery have been dedicated to the training of future academic leaders of surgery.

The overall goal of the fellowship program is for the trainee to optimize their proficiency in critical care decision-making, ICU administration, teaching, outcome assessment, and leadership of multi-disciplinary care teams. This goal will be achieved by ensuring fellows demonstrate the intellectual and practical means to care for critically ill patients with a depth of understanding in core critical care practices of physiology, monitoring, resuscitation, hemodynamic monitoring, shock, resuscitation, respiratory management, nutrition, infection, organ failure, perioperative/injury care, and end-of-life decision making.

Clinical training is focused on evidence-based practice with a stress on process-improvement review and advancement. As such, there is strong emphasis on the development of the academic surgeon through administrative leadership responsibilities, guidance of care teams, and research techniques and project creation. Fellows provide supportive care in the initial evaluation and resuscitation of critically ill acute care surgical patients and function as “Junior Attendings” in this role. At the completion of training, fellows will be competent and eligible for certification through the American Board of Surgery in Surgical Critical Care.