We are excited to have you here and we hope that the next several weeks will give you an introduction and an appreciation to the field of surgical critical care. The mastery of critical care is a life long journey. Our goals for you are to be challenged and taught by our expert faculty and to gain a fundamental understanding of both the art and the science of critical care medicine. We also want to expose you to a model of multidisciplinary care. You will have the unique opportunity to work alongside both surgical and anesthesia intensivists, Critical Care Nurse Practitioners, Critical Care Fellows, residents from a variety of specialties, critical care nurses, pharmacists, respiratory therapists, clinical nutritionists, and others to name a few.
SCCS Mission Statement
Improving Critical Care quality and satisfaction while decreasing cost for SICU patients through enhanced staffing, standardizing practice, and order management.
Again, welcome to the SCCS. We look forward to working with you and sincerely hope that you have a wonderful experience and enjoy critical care as much as we do.
Surgical critical care services protocols and guidelines
Purpose
To provide standardized approaches to the care of surgical critical care patients.
Policy
Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) are meant to standardize and optimize care and decrease variability in practice. They are intended to be used as framework for the delivery of patient care in the surgical critical care units. CPG’s are a combination of evidence-based medicine and accepted practices in critical care medicine. CPG’s are intended to provide decision support for the management of the majority of patients, and are not proposed as directives, rules, or policies. They are not substitutes for clinical judgement. Deviations from the CPG’s are expected when deemed medically necessary; all exceptions should be documented in the medical record and require discussion between the Surgical Critical Care attending and the attending of the primary or consulting service.
Procedure
- Topics for the development of CPG’s are determined by both the Surgical Critical Care staff and the surgical services. CPG’s are directed at high-volume clinical situations, complex multi-disciplinary management issues, or problems identified through the Performance Improvement program.
- CPG development will be based on accepted professional practice and review of the pertinent medical literature. Multidisciplinary representation will be solicited in the developmental phase, as indicated. This may include input from a variety of surgical and nonsurgical specialties, nursing staff, and allied health professionals as appropriate to the CPG.
- The format for CPG’s will include an introduction, pertinent review of the literature, purpose, and interventions.
- CPG’s will be reviewed in appropriate inter-disciplinary forums, and approved for the Department of Surgery-Anesthesia-Neurosurgery during the monthly critical care faculty meeting. The medical directors of the Surgical Critical Care Services will be responsible for development and approval of CPG’s.
- Implementation of CPG’s will require inservicing of nursing staff on Surgical Critical Care units, faculty, Advanced Practice Nurses, fellows, residents, and allied health professionals. Approved CPG’s will be available to the Surgical Critical Care units either through hardcopy or intranet.
- Change of therapy or practice from CPG’s will be documented by the attending Surgical Critical Care physician or designee in agreement with the primary or consulting service.
- Compliance with CPG’s will be monitored by the Surgical Critical Care Nurse Practitioner as part of the Performance Improvement program. Complications will be reviewed relative to the established CPG, and filtered through the performance improvement process, as indicated.
- CPG’s will be reviewed every 3 years, at minimum, by the surgical critical care faculty.
Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG)
Anesthesiologists
Andrew Gold
Assistant Professor of Clinical Anesthesiology and Critical Care
Emily Gordon
Associate Professor of Clinical Anesthesiology and Critical Care
C William Hanson
Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care
Jiri Horak
Associate Professor of Clinical Anesthesiology and Critical Care
Meghan Lane Fall
Associate Professor of Epidemiology in Biostatistics and Epidemiology
Arpit Patel, MD
Physician
Kristen Rock
Assistant Professor of Clinical Anesthesiology and Critical Care
Hazel Werlhof
Assistant Professor of Clinical Anesthesiology and Critical Care
Advanced Practice Providers
Corinna Sicoutris, CRNP
Director of Advanced Practice, HUP
Tara Collins, CRNP
Director of Advanced Practice, PPMC
Melissa Dunlop, PA-C
Director of Advanced Practice, PAH
Jason Saucier, CRNP
SCCS Manager
Amy Matta, CRNP
Lead APP of HUP SICU
Elizabeth Merulla, CRNP
Lead APP of PPMC TSICU
Dominic Gatta, CRNP
Lead APP of PAH SICU
Marissa Berlant, PA-C
Jennie Berman, CRNP
Jessica Bird, CRNP
Sarah Braun, PA-C
Nicole Bryan, PA-C
Krissy Buckley, CRNP
Eric Campbell, PA-C
Katie Campbell, PA-C
Cortney Cragg, CRNP
Tricia Czar, CRNP
Caroline Daroci, CRNP
Alexandra Drewicz, CRNP
Greta Eggenberger, PA-C
Erin Henry, CRNP
Mary Herc, PA-C
Kathleen Hirsch, CRNP
Nichole Hughes, PA-C
Elizabeth Long, CRNP
Sarah Lynch, CRNP
Mandy Martin, CRNP
Rebecca Mikolai, CRNP
Amanda Miller, PA-C
Joe Milorey, CRNP
Sarah Naber, PA-C
Christopher Parncutt, CRNP
Elizabeth Peitzman, PA-C
Kristan Reutlinger, CRNP
Lauren Robinson, CRNP
Allison Ryan, CRNP
Elizabeth Sheridan, CRNP
Haley Smith, CRNP
Caroline Stires, CRNP
Alyssa Thomas, PA-C
Blessen Thomas, PA-C
Victoria Vardilli, CRNP
Anesthesia Critical Care Fellows
Hesham Ezz, MD
Residency Program: Yale New Haven Hospital Cleveland Clinic
Andrew Graziano, MD
Residency Program: University of Missouri – Kansas City
Shannon Hayley, MD, PhD
Residency Program: Thomas Jefferson University Hospital
Nurse Leadership
Christine Aiello
Sebastian Ramagnano
Julianna Santine
Emergency Surgery Service
Emergency Surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania has expanded since its inception. The division offers an in-house attending surgeon coverage with expedient operating room availability 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Expertise and vast experience in managing acute surgical emergencies including but not limited to abdominal catastrophes secondary to bowel perforation, obstruction or fistulization, abdominal compartment syndrome, severe necrotizing soft tissue infections, and biliary obstruction. We cater to the highly complex general and emergency surgical issues that could overwhelm a community hospital’s human and technical resources. The Emergency Surgery Service evaluates nearly 2000 patients annually and performs well over 1200 cases per year. We welcome all transfer requests and with an in –house attending available around the clock, we do our best to expedite all transfers in, especially those requiring surgical intensive care. Providers seeking transfer call 1-877-937-PENN for rapid, easy access to speak directly to an attending. For critically ill patients in need of immediate quaternary-level care, consider the vast, state-of-the –art resources at Penn Medicine.