PROGRAM SETTING

St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children (SCHC) is a non-sectarian full-service children’s hospital, the home of the SCHC Pediatric Residency Program and the primary pediatric teaching facility for the Drexel University College of Medicine and its affiliated Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellowship and Emergency Medicine Residency Programs. The hospital is set on an urban campus located in eastern North Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and is less than 30 minutes from the Drexel University College of Medicine campus. The hospital has 183 beds, including an eight-bed pediatric intensive care unit, a thirty-bed neonatal intensive care unit, a twelve-bed intermediate care unit, and an eight-bed cardiac critical care unit. It conducts 160,000 outpatient visits each year.

The hospital’s tradition of excellence can be traced back to its humble beginnings over 125 years ago when it was established to meet the medical needs of the children of the mill workers in North Philadelphia. This tradition encompasses not only a deep commitment to caring for the children in its community and for those referred to the hospital for specialty services from other parts of the country and world but also a faculty that is passionately dedicated to teaching and academic growth. SCHC is well-known for its “neighborhood feel” which provides a warm and inviting medical home for patients and their families and affords medical professionals the opportunity to forge strong collaborative ties and lasting friendships with one another. SCHC is a regional referral center for multiple subspecialty services. The hospital employs state-of-the-art electronic technologies to facilitate patient care, research, and faculty communication. It fosters a spirit of inquiry through educational resources available through user-friendly hospital and university libraries.

SCHC’s Emergency Department (ED) treats 47,000 patients annually and handles a broad range of pediatric emergencies. It is a Level I trauma center and a 911-receiving facility. Patient age ranges from newborn to 21 years old. The Department has 24 acute beds, and a resuscitation bay. The acuity level is high and more than 50% of inpatient admissions come from the ED. There is a Fast Track area where children with non-urgent problems are seen. SCHC’s ED enjoys an excellent reputation among the community physicians and referring facilities. The ED directs the SCHC Transport Service which transports about 1,800 children each year from over 50 institutions. The ED is supervised 24 hours a day by six full-time and five part-time Pediatric Emergency Medicine (PEM) attending physicians, all board certified or board eligible in PEM, and six general pediatricians who staff the Fast Track area of the Department. The PEM physician staff is made up of both emergency medicine-trained and pediatrics-trained individuals whose combined clinical experience and educational background afford a rich learning environment for PEM fellows. Pediatric, Family Medicine, and Emergency Medicine resident physicians from various training programs staff the ED. SCHC is also the pediatric clerkship site for the Drexel University College of Medicine medical students with the ED forming an integral part of their experience in pediatrics. The ED plays an active role in the teaching of resident physicians and medical students and has an active clinical research program.

The Drexel University/SCHC Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellowship Program offers two fellowship positions yearly. Both Emergency Medicine residency-trained applicants and Pediatrics residency-trained applicants are welcome. The SCHC PEM Fellowship Program schedules most of its core and elective rotations at SCHC. Trauma, General Emergency Medicine, Child Maltreatment and Advocacy, and Toxicology are offered off-site. Fellows can arrange for elective rotations at SCHC and/or at other institutions.

AVAILABLE SCHC ELECTIVES

Adolescent Medicine
Allergy
Cardiology
Clinical Genetics and Dysmorphology
Community Emergency Medicine
Dental Medicine
Developmental Pediatrics
Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism
Gastroenterology
Hematology
HIV/AIDS Program
Infectious Diseases
Nephrology
Neurology
Neurosurgery
Oncology
Ophthalmology
Orthopedic Surgery
Otolaryngology
Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
Psychiatry
Pulmonology
Radiology
Rheumatology
Sports Medicine
Surgery/Trauma
Ultrasound
Urology
Other: The fellow physician is required to obtain approval from the Fellowship Director if he/she is interested in creating or participating in an elective not listed above.