General Anesthesiology and Subspecialty Care Residency
The Department of Anesthesiology is committed to ensuring that success of our resident physicians. We are a Level I Trauma Center and tertiary care facility.
The MetroHealth Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Management offers a four-year categorical and three-year advanced anesthesiology residency training program. Residents rotate through a variety of areas including surgical anesthesia, chronic pain management and critical care. Learn more about our curriculum.
We are a teaching hospital of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and our faculty members hold academic appointments at Case Western Reserve University. Our Medical Center is a Level I Trauma Center which adds a high degree of complexity in patient management.
As a Level I Trauma Center we see patients of all acuities, giving residents the opportunity to participate in cases with patients who are unstable and critically ill. The knowledge gained from these cases is invaluable. Busy general surgical and surgical specialties (such as vascular, orthopedics, urology, otolaryngology, cardiothoracic, pediatrics, neurosurgical, gynecology, plastics) also provide extensive teaching material for our residency.
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In addition to extensive experience in surgical anesthesia, we offer significant exposure in subspecialty areas. Highlights include:
- A well-established Acute Pain Service that performs a wide variety of blocks under ultrasound.
- Our Chronic Pain Service takes care of a high volume of patients with interventions which can include medical management, nerve blocks, spinal cord stimulators, and more.
- High-risk obstetrical anesthesia offers the resident exposure to complex obstetric patients.
- Transesophogeal echocardiography is extensively utilized for cardiac anesthesia.
- Our large Surgical Intensive Care Unit treats critically ill patients with a wide range of diseases and traumatic injuries.
Find out more about what makes our program unique from our Chief Residents and Program Director.
Friendly Work Environment and Commitment to Education
Our residency program has an educational focus, and our resident class averages seven individuals per year. This size allows for faculty and residents to get to know one another. Our faculty focuses special attention on the needs of our residents. Recent graduates have secured fellowships in Pain Management, Cardiothoracic Anesthesia, Regional Anesthesia, Critical Care, and Pediatric Anesthesia. Others have directly pursued careers in academic and private practice.
Our Approach to Diversity in Trainees
MetroHealth hospital is devoted to promoting and recruiting diverse residents, fellows, and faculty members to improve patient care. We are inspired to eliminate barriers to care, which is critical to our mission to deliver culturally compassionate care that respects each individual. We feel that having a diverse workforce that reflects the diversity of our community will only serve to improve patient and caregiver relationships.
Mission and Aims
The Mission of the MetroHealth Anesthesiology Residency Program:
To prepare the next generation of service, research, and innovation minded anesthesiologists with the leadership skills to respond effectively to challenging clinical scenarios in a broad scope of settings.
Residency Aims:
- Train residents in a variety of subspecialties of anesthesia in a dynamic environment that continuously develops and reinforces skills
- Prepare residents to face clinical situations uniquely encountered in an urban public hospital, caring for medically challenging patients
- Maintain a high level of care in our quest to eliminate health care disparities
- Provide strong education in trauma care with the ability to respond quickly to evolving clinical scenarios and resuscitate patients with life-threatening injuries.
- Provide residents the opportunity to function as a junior attending by developing and executing anesthetic plans under the guidance of the attending on call.
- Be responsive to our residents’ feedback and evolve in our education and training needs as the practice of anesthesia changes
- Aspire to be a leader in patient safety and research in the field of anesthesiology
- Work as a team to support each other in our pursuit of excellence
Frequently Asked Questions
We accept applications through the ERAS program. We do not offer any positions outside of the NRMP match.
Yes, the MetroHealth Anesthesia Residency Program offers a formal resident mentorship program that provides faculty guidance throughout residency training. Residents in their CA1-CA3 years will have an anesthesia faculty member that serves as their mentor.
The mentor will seek to help trainees meet their training goals, offer guidance for career growth, and provide advice for the residents ' professional development throughout their training. Additionally, each resident will have mentorship from both the program director and the associate program director facilitated through periodic individualized meetings.
Yes, once you finish your CA1 year and are in good academic standing as defined by the program, it is possible to moonlight with the permission of the program director.
This depends on post graduate year. Please see Salary and Benefits.
We look at the entire application and do not have a strict score cut off. However, anesthesiology residency is challenging and demanding.
You will continue to have to write exams during your training (in training exams, anesthesia knowledge test, BASIC) while learning how to function in the OR. As a result, we favor applicants with a strong history of academic performance and prioritize scores above 220.
As this represents the minority of applicants, we will not prioritize looking at applicants that have failed any portion of the USMLE exams.
We encourage all qualified applicants to apply, regardless of year of graduation from medical school. We have had numerous residents that have excelled coming from other specialties. However, large gaps in your medical training are problematic.
We accept applications from all qualified US and International graduates.
We sponsor both J1 and H1B visas.
Yes. We offer 3 categorical and 4 advanced placement positions.
We use EPIC for all of our medical records both in the hospital and in the OR.
Cleveland is a great city to live in, having the pros of living in big metropolitan area with few cons.
There are plenty of restaurants, parks, museums, festivals, and things to do around the city whether you are single or will be arriving with a family. Cleveland is especially beautiful in the summer.
Cost of living is very reasonable, traffic isn’t something we worry about. For more information, see Living in Cleveland.
This is what some of our alumni have to say about our program:
As I reflect upon my Metrohealth Anesthesiology training, it cultivated the vital qualities needed to succeed in fellowship and beyond. Upon graduation the entire class had the knowledge and confidence to successfully treat patients and integrate procedures, pharmacological and technology knowledge, and make critical decisions in advanced situations. The program also offered leadership opportunities and providing me with excellent leadership, diplomacy, organizational and time management skills that I will transfer to any position. The attendings gave support and direction needed to succeed in the clinic arena and went out of their way to assist with oral and written board preparation. They truly wanted success for the residents. Overall Metrohealth provided competitive education and was the most rewarding experience in my medical training.
I believe the training and clinical experience I received at MetroHealth was outstanding. Not only did it help prepare me for the fellowship, but also facilitated my performance in the written boards. The independence we get during our training is the program's greatest strength. This gives us the confidence to make decisions and develop leadership skills. This goes a long way to prepare us as confident attendings or fellows when we step out in the world.
As I look back at the time spent at MetroHealth Medical Center, I realize that it has trained me to handle virtually any challenging case that I will encounter as an anesthesiologist. The extensive hands-on experience provides the skills necessary to deliver safe and effective anesthesia, as well as giving one confidence in one's abilities.