At the diverse teaching sites for the emergency medicine program, residents experience the full spectrum of care, from two urban adult academic medical centers and a tertiary care children's hospital to two community hospitals, one urban and one suburban. At these hospitals, which together see more than 180,000 emergency patients a year, residents receive specialized training in different clinical environment.

An innovator since its beginning, the University and its teaching hospitals have a rich combined heritage: Medical College of Pennsylvania(TM) was the nation's first medical school for women and Hahnemann was founded to teach more humane ways to practice medicine.

Drexel University College of Medicine(TM) commitment to emergency medicine is evident at its principal hospitals, Medical College of Pennsylvania(TM) Hospital (MCPH), and Hahnemann University(TM) Hospital.

Each hospital is a Level I Regional Resource Trauma Center and offers residents experience in a wide variety of emergency situations. The Emergency Center at MCPH sees 33,000 patients a year, while the Emergency Center at Hahnemann, Center City sees 27,000.

The Department also operates University MedEvac, an aeromedical service that annually transports 500 patients.

The Department of Emergency Medicine's Division of EMS (Pre-Hospital Care) serves as a Base Command Center for the City of Philadelphia's Emergency Medical Services system. The Philadelphia Fire Department's Fire Rescue EMS system responds more than 105,000 times annually, and recently converted to an all Advanced Life Support service.

The Department also has medical command of emergency services in Montgomery County, just north of the city.

Members of Drexel University College of Medicine faculty also staff the emergency departments at Mercy Catholic Medical Center's (MCMC) Mercy Hospital of Philadelphia and Fitzgerald Mercy Hospital - the two community hospitals in the program.

Mercy Hospital of Philadelphia is a 229-bed community hospital in Philadelphia that serves as a site for both emergency unit and critical care training. The critical care service can accommodate up to 24 patients and the emergency department volume of 28,000 patients a year includes a high level of penetrating trauma.

Fitzgerald Mercy Hospital is a 350-bed community hospital located in the Philadelphia suburban of Darby. This emergency unit is one of the newest in the Delaware Valley and serves 32,000 patients a year.

The pediatric exposure is especially strong at all of these hospitals. These cases are not separated out from the patient mix. Additional exposure to focused pediatric emergency medicine is provided by the Department of Emergency Medicine's Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine during three rotations at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children in Philadelphia.

St. Christopher's, a 183-bed pediatric regional referral center for children throughout the greater Delaware Valley and the nation, offers a full range of pediatric medical, surgical and subspecialty care.

The Department is responsible for resident training at St. Christopher's, where our Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine provides attending coverage for the Emergency Center in collaboration with the Pediatric Emergency Medicine Division of the Department of Pediatrics of St. Christopher's.

Likewise, resident coverage of the emergency department there is the joint responsibility of St. Christopher's pediatric residents and this program's emergency medicine residents. The attending and resident emergency medicine physicians are integral participants in the life and direction of St. Christopher's Emergency Center; they are not "visiting residents," as can be the case when residents are sent to specialty hospital rotations.