HCA Healthcare-Mercer University School of Medicine-Grand Strand Health Program

Program Identity & Fit

This is a four-year, HCA Healthcare-affiliated categorical anesthesiology program based at Grand Strand Medical Center, a 371-bed Level I adult/Level II pediatric trauma center in Myrtle Beach that serves as the only site in Horry and Georgetown counties offering cardiac surgery, neurosurgery, and PICU services, giving residents exposure to high-acuity subspecialty cases (cardiothoracic, neuroanesthesia, OB, pediatric, regional/chronic pain) within a community-based clinical volume rather than a quaternary academic center. Scholarly activity is institutionally supported through HCA's national research infrastructure (30+ million patient encounters, research coordinators, the HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine) but framed as a structured, encouraged component layered onto clinical training rather than the program's defining identity. The curriculum follows a standard CBY-through-CA3 block structure with dedicated chronic pain, NORA, cardiac, and practice management rotations, and the program explicitly emphasizes resident well-being through HCA's "Pathways to Flourishing" autonomy/belonging/competence framework, signaling a culture-and-wellbeing orientation alongside clinical training. As a new, growing categorical program within a large for-profit hospital system, it appears to value residents who thrive in a structured, community-hospital clinical training environment with institutional research support rather than an independent academic research track.