Mount Carmel Health System Program

Program Identity & Fit

Mount Carmel is a community-based, non-pyramidal 5-year general surgery program (18 residents; 3 categorical + 3 preliminary per year) built around an extensive, early-starting operative experience across two main hospitals plus rotations at OSU (transplant), Nationwide Children's (pediatric surgery), and outreach clinics. As a community tertiary referral center, it offers a distinctive case mix combining high-volume bread-and-butter general surgery (hernias, cholecystectomies) with complex cases (pancreaticoduodenectomies, esophagectomies, advanced MIS, bariatrics) typically split between university and community settings elsewhere. The hallmark is the PGY-V "chief clinic" year, where residents run their own service with near-attending autonomy across three clinic sites, functioning explicitly as a transition-to-practice year, supplemented by an optional international/mission surgery elective. The program values collegiality, resident input into program direction, broad-based operative competence over subspecialty research output, and produces graduates who enter practice or fellowship with strong independent operative confidence rather than an academic/research trajectory.