Community Memorial Health System Program

Program Identity & Fit

Community Memorial Health System's General Surgery Residency is a five-year, community-hospital-based ACGME-accredited program centered at Community Memorial Hospital-Ventura, with residents progressively assuming independent responsibility for private surgeons' patients under a graduated-autonomy call and clinic model. The curriculum is broad-based and procedurally oriented, spanning abdominal, endocrine, breast, and robotic surgery, GI endoscopy, and dedicated rotations through affiliated sites for trauma, burn, pediatric surgery (CHOC), surgical oncology (City of Hope), and transplant, supplemented by structured skills courses (FLS, FES, ASSET, ATLS, FCCS, POCUS). Scholarly activity is a mandatory graduation requirement supported by an institutional Research Support Team and conference-attendance funding, but the program's stated outcome goal is producing busy, board-certified community surgeons rather than academic subspecialists. The emphasis on private-practice-style continuity, hands-on operative volume, and affiliated tertiary rotations suggests the program values clinically hands-on, self-directed residents oriented toward eventual community surgical practice.