Program Information 

The residency program in Orthopaedic Surgery at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida, is fully approved by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery as a comprehensive five year program. It combines one year of a rotating internship and four years of orthopaedic surgery. The orthopaedic program is approved for 35 residents equally divided among the five years. Frank J. Eismont, M.D., serves as Director of the Residency Program and Chairman of the Department of Orthopaedics.

Each year the Department of Orthopaedics selects seven new residents at the PGY-1 level. The PGY1 year consists of six months of general surgery, two months of orthopaedic surgery, one month of neurosurgery, one month of anesthesiology, one month of musculoskeletal radiology, and one month of vacation. Our orthopaedic residency program is a participant of the Electronic Residency Selection Service (ERAS) and the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP). All seven starting residents each year are selected through the Match process.  Applicants must register for both ERAS and the NRMP to be considered for a position in our program.

The residency program in orthopaedics utilizes the following teaching hospitals:

JACKSON MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
Rotation years: 1,2,3,4,5
Rotations: all orthopaedic subspecialties

With 1,567 beds and serving as the county hospital for Miami and Dade County, Jackson Memorial Hospital is utilized as the main teaching hospital. It is part of the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center Complex, a modern 67-acre campus located minutes from downtown Miami. The average daily orthopaedic inpatient census is 61 and annual orthopaedic outpatient clinic visits total over 26,500. There is an average of 10,100 operative procedures performed annually by the orthopaedic department.

VETERANS ADMINISTRATION HOSPITAL
Rotation years: 1,3,5
Rotations: general surgery (pgy1), hand (pgy3), general orthopaedics (pgy3,5) 

Located across the street from Jackson Memorial Hospital, the Veterans Administration Hospital is a 651 bed hospital with an additional 240 beds in the nursing home. Annual orthopaedic outpatient clinic visits total over 4,800, with more than 460 orthopaedic operative procedures performed last year.

MIAMI CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL
Rotation years: 2,4,5
Rotations: pediatric orthopaedics

Miami Children's Hospital (MCH) is a 268-bed hospital located 20 minutes from the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center.  Residents on the Pediatric Orthopaedic Service take care of children at both MCH and UM/JMMC. Annual exposure at MCH exceeds 10,000 outpatient visits plus approximately 700-800 surgical patients.

UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI HOSPITAL
Rotation years: 2,3,4,5
Rotations: MSK radiology (pgy1), sports medicine (2,4,5), joint reconstruction (pgy2,4,5), tumor (pgy3,5)

University of Miami Hospital (UMH) is a 500 bed facility located across the street from the School of Medicine and JMH. Orthopaedic residents rotate through this hospital while on the sports medicine, reconstructive, and musculoskeletal oncology services. More than 817 orthopaedic operative procedures were performed at UMH last year.

MEMORIAL REGIONAL HOSPITAL
Rotation years: 3,4
Rotation: foot and ankle

Residents are exposed to a wide variety of elective foot and ankle cases while on this rotation. 

The program is well balanced between clinical and surgical activity and didactic teaching experiences. The Department of Orthopaedics has 20 full time faculty members and a clinical voluntary faculty of 58. 

It consists of the following services: 

• pediatric orthopaedics
• adult trauma
• spine
• adult reconstruction
• musculoskeletal oncology
• sports medicine
• hand surgery
• foot and ankle

A copy of the current rotation schedule for the PGY1 year is included under a separate section. A Psychomotor Skills Laboratory offers the opportunity of developing and improving surgical skills and a well-stocked library of textbooks, journals, medline capabilities, and video tapes offer further opportunity for the acquisition of a well rounded education. 

Ample opportunity is provided for clinical and laboratory research during the five years of residency education. Each resident rotates through the research service in his/her PGY2 and PGY3 year. A resident elective rotation as a PGY5 provides residents with additional research time during their chief year. Residents are expected to complete two projects, either in clinical or basic research during their residency training. Residents are encouraged to submit their research for presentation and publication.

The organization of the residency training program is designed to expose the resident to a wide variety of orthopaedic problems with rotations structured at intervals conducive to learning and development of the resident. Continuous review and revision of the various aspects of the program are made in an attempt to provide highly motivated residents with the best possible opportunities for reaching their maximal potential. Upon completion of his/her training, such a resident will have obtained the expected level of confidence, skill and professional attitude necessary for an orthopaedic surgeon.

Resident Scheduling/Rotation Schedule/On-Call Assignments/
Vacation/Educational Leave

A rotation schedule for the entire year is made up by the Administrative Chief Resident in May, preceding the start of the academic year on July 1. The schedule takes into account absences of residents for course attendance, fellowship interviews, meetings, vacations and other absences. Residents are provided with one month of paid vacation and 10-14 additional days of educational leave.  During this time they are relieved of all clinical responsibilities. Though residents may schedule their own vacation and course times, guidelines have been established by the Residency Education Committee to ensure that there is adequate coverage of each service at all times.

The on-call schedules are the responsibility of the residents. The PGY2 orthopaedic residents are responsible for in-house coverage of the emergency room. The PGY2 on trauma is eliminated from the call schedule and does not take call during his trauma rotation. The PGY2 at Miami Children's Hospital only takes call at that institution while the remaining five PGY2s take call at JMH. In-house call is covered by the PGY3 on the Night Float rotation. This resident is responsible for coverage in-house Sunday through Thursday. Fridays and Saturdays are covered by the remaining eight PGY3s and PGY4s. Chief call from home is shared among six of the seven PGY5s, placing them on call every sixth night. In addition, there are separate call schedules for the Hand Service (divided equally among the five residents/fellows on the service), UMH Hospital, and the VA  Medical Center. Call from each of these services/hospital is from home and not in-house. There is a separate call schedule for Miami Children's Hospital. The two junior residents at MCH share in-house call with the three orthopaedic PAs. 

(rev 8/10/10)