Residency Program Overview

The University of Cincinnati Medical Center offered the nation's first Emergency medicine residency which began in 1970. While the inaugural class consisted of a single resident, over time it has expanded and since July 2012 we’ve had 14 residency positions per year, for a current total of 56 residents across 4 years. The residency has full accreditation from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. Many leaders throughout the world, in both academic and clinical Emergency Medicine, received their training at the University of Cincinnati.

• UC EM Alumni Map
• List of Recent Graduates and Last Known Appointment (DOCX)
• All Alumni Classes 1972-current

Program Overview

• Sixty-seven clinical faculty members residency-trained in Emergency Medicine.
• Active clinical and basic science research with substantial NIH and corporate funding.
• The Center for Emergency Care provides a state-of-the-art treatment facility for emergency patients with a new expanded ED that opened July 2023.
• Busy University-based Emergency Department at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center with over 67,000 adult visits yearly and the region’s only Level I Trauma Center.
• Two community hospital Emergency Department experiences at two busy suburban hospitals; West Chester Hospital sees 42,000 patients per year and is a Level III Trauma Center, and The Jewish Hospital which sees 29,000 per year.
• Affiliation with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center main campus, as well as their suburban Liberty community campus, seeing in combination over 90,000 ED visits per year.
• ACGME-accredited fellowship training in Emergency Medical Services and Sports Medicine, EUFAC accredited fellowship in Advanced Emergency Medicine Ultrasonography, and additional fellowships in neuro-critical care, anesthesia/critical care, palliative and addiction medicine, operations, medical education, and social emergency.
• Air Care Aeromedical Program which makes over 2000 flights per year with 40% scene flights and 36 hours of daily resident flight physician coverage.
• Robust resident-led pre-hospital medical control and EMS oversight coordinated by the Department of Emergency Medicine at University of Cincinnati.
• Significant elective time to pursue individual interests in the field of Emergency Medicine.
• Extensive opportunities to engage in medical student education and mentorship in both the preclinical and clinical years.

Our 4 Year Training Model 

We believe that four years of Emergency Medicine training allows the resident to graduate with more clinical and professional maturity and allows residents to develop more effectively into clinical and academic leaders. Our residents are often ready to transition into leadership roles immediately upon graduation or enter their top choice of fellowship. However, as there is very little ED clinical time during fellowships, a year of fellowship training is not equivalent to the fourth year of our program.

The fourth year is structured as a junior faculty role in which the R4 supervises both EM R1s, off-service residents and medical students caring for patients in a 32-bed unit. This model allows the R4 to develop crucial skills both in ED management and supervision as well as education, while at the same time significantly increasing his or her own number of patient encounters. These are skills that serve our graduates well whether they seek out academic or community EM careers after residency training.

Another benefit of the fourth year is the increased elective time available to allow for the development of a particular area of interest, the completion of research projects, or the strengthening of a perceived area of clinical weakness. Not only do these additional experiences make our residents better clinicians, they help to prepare them for a career in academic medicine and/or leadership, should they choose to pursue such a pathway.

Our educational mission is not only to train Emergency Physicians to develop the clinical skills to succeed in any clinical environment, but also to train Emergency Physicians to develop the professional skills to become leaders in Emergency Medicine. We believe our four year program provides residents with the skills they need to get the “dream job” on graduation – and if you talk to our graduates across the country, you will find that we are successful in achieving this goal.