Anesthesiology

There will be hospital specific orientations at Froedtert and the VA.  These will take place on Wednesday, June 27 and Thursday, June 28 from 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.  Each day, half of the incoming housestaff will be assigned to Froedtert and the other half to the VA.  Topics will include meals, scrubs, call rooms, medical records, infection control, pharmacy, patient safety, regulatory issues, patient care policies, incident reporting, hospital specific initiatives, orientation to inpatient environment, and Joint Commission.  Hospital ID’s will be issued and parking registration will be completed.  Chris Mol and his staff from Occupational Health will be present both days at Froedtert to conduct the compliance clinics.

All incoming housestaff are required to attend the June 29 MCWAH Orientation Day at MCW from 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.  Topics will include general competencies, bloodborne pathogen training, mentoring, risk management, HIPAA and confidentiality, employee harassment, campus resources, and employment processing.  Chris Mol and his staff also will conduct a compliance clinic from 2:15 to 3:30 that day. 

Again this year, MCWAH will send information regarding EPIC training to the incoming housestaff.  The housestaff will need to complete the training requirements prior to starting on July 1.   Please note that each housestaff will need to complete their training prior to obtaining their login and password.  The VA also is requiring incoming housestaff to complete the online training course “VHA Mandatory Training for Trainees Released – 2010.”  Access to CPRS (Computerized Patient Record System) at the VA will be granted only after completion of this mandatory training.  The VA will send instructions to incoming housestaff in an April mailing.  The VA background check MUST be completed no less than 2 weeks before access to CPRS will be granted.

It is not necessary for all housestaff to obtain MCW ID cards.  Only those housestaff who require after-hours access to MCW or to the MACC Fund Building via the 3rd floor connector from CHW need to have MCW ID cards.  Housestaff do not need an MCW ID to access library services; their CHW or Froedtert ID is sufficient.  If they want to check out books, the library will attach a bar code to their CHW or Froedtert ID. 

Yes, the Medical College of Wisconsin Affiliated Hospitals (MCWAH) requires you to be ACLS certified within 30 days of your start date.  If you are unable to get certified at your current institution please use this link for information. 

You are required by law to have an active NPI number after you have graduated from medical school or any other healthcare training program.  Please print the following instructions for information on applying for your number.  After you have received your number, please forward the e-mail with your NPI number to our Program Coordinator, Ben Farley, at bfarley@mcw.edu.  View Instructions

All (PGY-1, CA-1, CA-2 and CA-3) trainees take the In-Training Exam.  Each year the In-Training Exam is taken the first or second Saturday of March.  Department faculty and CRNAs will help cover call duties during the ITE.  

The Anesthesia Knowledge Test, the AKT, is administered to all CA-1s.  PGY-1s do not take the AKT. 

There are four unique AKT exams, geared to level of training and administered throughout the CA-1 and CA-2 training years (Pre-Test, AKT-1, and AKT-6, AKT-24).  The pre-test is administered during orientation to the residency program, and the AKT-1 as a post test at the end of the first six weeks of training.  These two exams are designed to assess baseline anesthesia knowledge and growth of knowledge after the first month of training.  The AKT-6 is administered at or near the end of six months of training during the CA-1 year, and the AKT-24 test is administered at the end of the CA-2 year.

All incoming residents will be provided with the text, Clinical Anesthesia (see below).  In addition, incoming residents will have the option of an iPod Touch or a second text, Stoelting's Anesthesia and Co-Existing Disease, 5th Ed.  Podcasting of key department lectures is still in its infancy but will be ongoing and expanded for the 2012-13 academic year.

Clinical Anesthesia

by Paul G. Barash, MD

The widely acclaimed text Clinical Anesthesia is now in its Sixth Edition, with thoroughly updated coverage and a new, more user friendly design.  More than 100 leading experts cover every aspect of contemporary perioperative medicine in one comprehensive, clinically focused, clear, concise, and accessible volume.  New chapters in this edition cover genomic basis of perioperative medicine, office-based anesthesia, and disaster preparedness and bioterrorism.  A new two-color page design enables readers to spot crucial information quickly.  Each chapter opens with a numbered list of key points and the numbers are used in the margins to help readers locate information on those points.

The MCWAH Residents Spouse Association welcomes you to Milwaukee.  Probably the most frequent question asked by new residents is “In what areas do most residents live?”  An analysis of all residents shows that the majority live in the following areas: Wauwatosa, Brookfield, West Allis, Greenfield, and Shorewood; in Milwaukee, on the “East Side” (from Wisconsin Avenue north to the Shorewood border and from the lakefront west to the Milwaukee River), west of 50th Street and in the neighborhoods of the major hospitals.

For more housing information, visiting the Graduate Medical Education Web site.