Instagram:
@wellstar_em

Location:
Marietta, Georgia

Year founded:
2017

Current Number of residents:
14

Program length:
Three years

What makes your program stand out?

We are a high-volume tertiary care community hospital with only four other residency programs in the hospital. That means when patients come in, they are managed fully by our residents, not off-service consultants competing to get their share of procedures. We are a certified advanced stroke center and a STEMI center with emergent coronary artery bypass graft available. In our very first year, from July 2018 to June 2019, our first-year EM residents performed more than 100 intubations. That said, we are a very well-resourced hospital; we have all major specialties available in house, and we do not typically stabilize and transfer patients elsewhere. As the main receiving facility for the Wellstar system (11 hospitals in the Atlanta area), we take all comers. This combination of volume and acuity, ED resident independence, and outstanding and advanced clinical resources provides a unique and dynamic learning environment. We also just opened a brand-new emergency department built to handle an eventual volume in excess of 200,000 patients per year.

What unique benefits does your city have to offer?

Kennestone is in a suburb 20 miles north of downtown Atlanta. If you go another 20 or 30 miles outside of Marietta, you get to the North Georgia mountains. We are uniquely positioned between a major metropolitan area with an incredible cultural landscape and easy access to outdoor activities including hiking, tubing, and mountain biking. Marietta is a small community, but it has a variety of neat neighborhoods. The diversity of patients we see is pretty remarkable.

What is an interesting fact about your city?

Atlanta is one of the fastest-growing and most rapidly diversifying cities in the country. Insiders know about our amazing dining scene as well as a world-class entertainment culture.

What is an interesting fact about your program?

We recruit residents from all over the country, and many have fascinating pasts—some are on second (or even third) careers. We have former professional musicians, presidential aides, and many others with fascinating stories. We pride ourselves on our diversity and look for candidates who bring something unique to the program!

—Ted Stettner, MD, emergency medicine residency program director