Clinical Rotations

Overview

Orthopaedic residents at Rush University Medical Center gain substantial experience in the diagnosis, management, and treatment of all orthopaedic pathologies. Our program emphasizes a graduated and customized learning experience for the young physician to prepare him or her to enter either private practice or academics.

Residents have clinical rotations in all major orthopaedic subspecialties. Rotations are 10 – 11 weeks long and residents rotate on five different services each year. All rotations consist of both inpatient and outpatient care. Residents provide care for patients on each service at the bedside, in the clinic as well as in the operating room. Our orthopaedic faculty educate our residents in all of these settings. Residents typically spend 1 – 2 days in clinic and 3 – 4 days in the operating room. In addition to the education received during patient care, residents actively participate in several weekly service-specific conferences led by our faculty.

Intern Clinical Rotations

In accordance with ACGME requirements, first year orthopaedic residents spend 6 months on orthopaedic services and 6 months on non-orthopaedic services. Each intern rotation is one month long and exposes our new residents to many different services in orthopaedic surgery. Interns play an integral role in managing patient care on the floor, in clinics, and in the operating room. The education interns receive on rotations is supplemented by the intern skills curriculum that is held throughout the year.

Interns complete rotations on the following services:

• Adult Reconstruction (2 rotations)
• Cook County Orthopaedic Trauma (2 rotations)
• Trauma, Tumor & Pediatrics (2 rotations)
• Primary Care Sports Medicine
• Cook County General Surgery Trauma (2 rotations)
• General Surgery at Rush University Medical Center or Cook County
• Emergency Medicine
• Foot & Ankle

PGY 2 – PGY 5 Clinical Rotations

Residents complete rotations in all major orthopaedic subspecialties including trauma, adult reconstruction, sports medicine, spine, foot and ankle, tumor, pediatrics, and hand. A majority of rotations are at Rush University Medical Center and Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush. Residents also rotate at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago for pediatrics. For trauma, residents rotate at Rush University Medical Center (Level II), John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County (Level I), Loyola University Medical Center (Level I) and with OrthoIllinois in Rockford Illinois. OrthoIllinois is a private practice that staffs several Level I trauma centers in Rockford, Illinois and the surrounding suburbs. In total, residents spend 60 weeks on an orthopedic trauma service throughout the 5 years, with 50 of those weeks at a Level I trauma center.

Clinical Volume

Rush is a prolific orthopaedic department and the residency program continually benefits from the number of cases completed each year. Each year, the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery completes over 10,000 operative cases in all orthopaedic subspecialties. Each graduating resident averages operating in over 2,000 cases over the course of their five years at Rush. Below is the average number of cases the Class of 2020 performed for each of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) required orthopaedic cases.