Message from the Department Chair

It is with great personal pride that our Department graduated its 13th class of residents this past July, and began our 16th full year. Late summer and fall is always a very exciting time of year, as we’ve said goodbye to our graduates (and hear from them in their new positions!), have welcomed and oriented an eager intern class and began mentoring new senior students rotating in the Department. Our graduation dinner is always a very special event, and allows our graduates to speak from their heart regarding their training, and how prepared they feel going out in the “real world”. They earnestly felt mentored, encouraged and developed at the appropriate pace. Opportunities to pursue specific scholarly interests were available and capitalized upon. Many tears were shed, lots of hugs and looking forward to sharing in their future accomplishments. I truly savor and take pride in our graduates and look forward to nurturing each individual and class. I’d like to share  typical email messages I receive from  recent graduates of our residency:

“As I started practicing Emergency Medicine in Philadelphia for the first few weeks, I realize every day more and more what a superior training I received at Cooper. I am so grateful to all my attendings and to you as a chairman for a great job in teaching residents. On few occasions, our residents told me that they could not believe that I am straight out of residency and didn't work elsewhere for few years as an attending. They mentioned knowledge and calmness during resuscitations as the reasons. Well, I thought, if one can the handle Cooper ED after such a great training, one can handle anything! Thank you, Dr. Chansky, for all your efforts to make Cooper such a great residency, and thanks to all my attendings for their teaching, mentoring, and support.

I have so much to say yet I don’t know how – which is very unlike me – but I guess I’ll start at the beginning.  I’m so lucky I got to train here.  I had such a good feeling about this place from the little time that I spent here on interview/second look, etc.  I’d seen so many places on the interview trail and I knew I would learn emergency medicine just about any where, but I didn’t see any other place where people loved coming to work as much as Cooper.  I quickly realized that the work atmosphere is created “top-down”.  Dr. Chansky does so much for his faculty and his residents; he takes pride in his department and it shows in our productivity and operational efficiency.  Dr. Nyce and Dr. Cassidy-Smith support the residents 100%--and are sometimes loyal to us to a fault, and that made me as a senior resident and subsequently a chief, want to take personal responsibility for the welfare of my co-residents and for our program.  Now that I’m considering the additional responsibilities of attendingship, I realize that all of our attendings work here because they believe in the value of medical education, love emergency medicine and are committed to giving a lot of their personal and professional selves to the residents.  I have learned from each and every one of them, even those whose personalities didn’t quite mesh with mine, and there are quite a few whose medical rationale, practice styles, pearls and “isms” I am certainly going to carry forward with me.  And of course, none of this would run without Grace and Ramie, whose efficiency and organization make it possible for all of us to do our jobs with far fewer headaches.”

The Cooper Health System is vibrant and thriving in South Jersey and our ED census is over 65,000 patients per year, with 14,000 being children. I have been in a leadership role at Cooper and the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School for 26 years and Emergency Medicine has the utmost respect of other Departments and the Dean. In 1997 we were the 54^th academic department of Emergency Medicine established in the country. In 2004 we joined an elite group of departments of Emergency Medicine with NIH grant support. I am actively involved in every strategic decision that impacts Emergency Medicine, and meet regularly with the CEO and COO of Cooper University Hospital, and the Dean of RWJMS. This means I have the clout and authority to continually improve operations in the ED, our residency, fellowship, student programs, and clinical research.  We had a central role in the exciting development of Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, South Jersey's first four year allopathic school with preliminary LCME accreditation. We are accepting our first class enrolling in 2012!

Our graduates are extremely competitive in both academic and community positions’, receiving multiple job offers. Expertise in all areas of EM especially interpreting EKG’s, disaster preparedness, ultrasound, pediatrics, trauma, toxicology, goal directed therapy in sepsis and, induced hypothermia in cardiac arrest, makes our graduates very attractive. Recent graduates have been recruited primarily to develop an ultrasound or shock program. We have succeeded meeting our goal of providing the highest quality emergency care for our patients, while teaching the future clinicians and leaders of our specialty. First and foremost we take superb care of our patients, and have complete autonomy in their care. Second, we are fully dedicated to medical education. My personal philosophy is to work many clinical shifts, which allows me to get to know and interact with every resident and most rotating students. You will not find a more supportive environment in which to train. I look forward to focusing all my efforts, and those of my diverse faculty, to your education in the Emergency Department.

Emergency Medicine at Cooper was the most popular elective in the medical school, and the students pushed for and succeeded developing a curricular change including a 4 week mandatory EM rotation which began in July, 2007.  Our eight-member division of pediatric emergency medicine provides state-of-the-art pediatric care and education in an adjacent yet separate Pediatric ED. Ultrasound is utilized daily in our practice. We are actively involved in the Camden community, providing services at a shelter for battered women, grant support for victims of violence and speaking engagements. The past seven years we have had an emphasis on evidence based medicine in both our practice and journal club. All of our residents are involved in a clinical research or other approved scholarly project, and I am dedicated to fully supporting resident and faculty scholarly activity. The past twenty-four months we have funded several initiatives to study and address ED throughput, utilize a modular curriculum, expanded Faculty coverage of the ED for specific teaching, built a new FAST track, and received over $800,000 in NIH grant support, collaboratively instituted digital PAX radiography and EPIC/Clin Doc EMR which interfaces with the entire system, just to name a few of our notable accomplishments. A 14,000 square foot addition and complete renovation of the ED was completed in June of 2010. The core faculty have just moved into new administrative and lecture space adjacent to the ED and we have invested in an audio-response system to enhance didactics.  Cooper University Hospital has added much needed critical care and operating room space, and upgrading information technology.

I take the time  to meet and welcome every interviewee to our Department and should you decide to interview, I am confident you will find the time committed worthwhile. Students who have not had the opportunity to rotate through our department will have ample time to talk to our residents. Your biggest challenge will be selecting the program that fits your individual needs.

I hope this additional information assists you in your decision. My office door is always open, and I encourage you to contact me, our Program Director, individual faculty or any of our past or current residents with any future questions. You are always welcome to spend an evening with any faculty member during a clinical shift to better appreciate our unique, upbeat atmosphere. We practice academic emergency medicine with a superb nursing staff and support services. My faculty love emergency medicine at Cooper, and our residents are very special, integral members of our Department. Perhaps you will have the opportunity to join us!

Michael Chansky, M.D.
Chair, Department of Emergency Medicine