Author: PGY3/Chief Resident Caresse Voung
During one of my electives, I opted to do a Rural Medicine elective at St. Luke’s Wood River Medical Center in Idaho. My motivating reason was wanting experience a different taste of emergency medicine outside the bustling urban environment of Chicago.
Wood River Medical Center is a critical access hospital, with a 10-bed emergency department and 25 inpatient beds (including a small OB unit). The facility does not have an intensive care unit and there is limited specialized support. The closest cath lab is a ~1.5 hour ambulance ride or ~30 minute helicopter ride. The closest trauma center is a ~2.5 hours ambulance drive or ~45 minute helicopter ride. This is of course pending favorable weather conditions. In the winter, snowfall and icy roads can make driving treacherous, and the surrounding mountainous landscape of Ketchum can be difficult to navigate by air.
In comparison to ACMC, which has a 70-bed emergency department, 20 bed pediatric emergency department, 750+ inpatient beds, the most ICU beds in the state of Illinois, in addition to being a tertiary care center, level 1 trauma center, comprehensive stroke center, STEMI receiving and LVAD center. Care is rarely transferred out.
Working at Wood River, here are some of my main lessons I took with me:
- Self-reliance on stabilizing patients
- Coordinating patient transportation
- Communicating effectively with remote consultants
- Managing repeat encounters within a small community
- Maintaining good relationships limited local outpatient providers
This rotation also afforded time for personal growth and refocusing as I am wrapping up my final year in residency. I enjoyed living in a tree house and biking to work. I embarked on a 3-day backpacking trip around the Sawtooths. I spent some quality time with my long-distance boyfriend. And I hiked approximately 70 miles in my month-long rotation. If you can’t tell from the pictures below, I loved every second of it.
ACMC Emergency Medicine 