Emergency Medicine Bethlehem

Emergency Medicine Training in a Busy, Tertiary Care University Hospital

The three-year ACGME-approved Emergency Medicine Residency Program at St. Luke’s accepts 12 residents per year. Our goal is to provide a comprehensive, academically-rigorous curriculum in a tertiary, academic medical center. The program exposes residents to a broad spectrum of pathology providing them with experience in managing the breadth of conditions seen in emergency medicine. Our service area, the Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton region, is the third largest metropolitan area in Pennsylvania yet is surrounded by smaller communities. Our residents therefore have the opportunity to care for patients from urban, suburban, and rural settings.

Some of the unique aspects of St. Luke’s and our program include:

• St. Luke’s is the largest healthcare provider in our region, employing over 17,000. The network includes 12 hospitals in PA and NJ as well as over 200 care sites.
• The Bethlehem campus, our primary site, serves as the tertiary care center for our 12 hospital network. That network cares for over 400,000 EM patients each year.
• St. Luke’s Bethlehem campus has been recognized as one of the top 100 hospitals in the US, one of only 15 major teaching hospitals on that list. We are also the nation’s #1 teaching hospital.
• Given their extensive training and experience, beginning in their 2nd year our residents respond to Rapid Responses and Code Blues in our hospital with the responsibility of airway management should intervention be necessary.
• Our residents have extensive training in caring for the very sickest of patients, working with EM Intensivists, trained in EM and Critical Care, in the ED and having 6 months of dedicated Critical Care experience.
• The Bethlehem campus is a Level 1 Trauma Center and we have a fantastic relationship with our Trauma Service. Our residents are intimately involved in the care of every trauma patient seen in our trauma bays.
• Residents rotate in 2 of our network EDs, Bethlehem and Allentown, with a combined annual volume of over 100,00 patients, and have the opportunity to work in some of the other 9 EDs in our network.

One of the greatest strengths of our program is undoubtedly our residents. They are a great group of committed physicians who care about their patients and care about each other. The comradery between the residents, as well as between the faculty and nursing staff, makes St. Luke’s a truly great place to work.

Scott Melanson, MD, FACEP, FAAEM
Program Director

“We have a tremendous group of residents at St. Luke’s who are passionate about learning and providing the very best care. While challenging each other, they learn from dedicated, innovative faculty educators. Every resident graduates as a competent, compassionate emergency physician fully prepared to manage any emergency.”

– Dr. Scott Melanson