General Surgery Residency Program

A message from C. Neal Ellis, MD
Program Chair, General Surgery
The Valley Health System GME Consortium

Welcome to the General Surgery Residency at the Valley Health System in Las Vegas. During the 2020 Match, we will be recruiting our second class of four Categorical and eight Preliminary PGY-1 residents. We began the planned four-year introduction of this residency in July 2019 with four Categorical PGY-2, four Categorical PGY-1, and eight Preliminary PGY-1 residents. The start of this residency program was anticipated by all in the Valley Health System and many in the Las Vegas community, with sponsorship by numerous corporate, government and education organizations, and over $1 million in grant funding.

The start of the residency was a tremendous success. We had excellent patient and case volumes for the residents, multiple faculty added to the program and academic components, including didactic lectures, simulation curriculum, grand rounds and journal club, beginning and going well. Our Level 1 Trauma Rotation with the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) has been a great success and our first residents will be going to UCLA for Transplant and Hepatobiliary surgery experience this fall. We also began our research and quality improvement programs with presentations by two residents at the Nevada Chapter of the American College of Surgeons. Another resident will be starting a two-year research fellowship in Pediatric Surgery at Stanford University in July 2020.

In the second year of the residency, with the addition of four residents, we plan to expand both the number of the Valley Health System services and institutions covered. We will continue our collaborations with UNLV and UCLA and our affiliation with the Nevada Donor Network for organ procurements. This year, we will be recruiting four Categorical and eight Preliminary PGY-1 residents who are up to the challenges of a new residency program where they will have an important role in establishing the culture of the residency. The absence of surgical fellows or senior/chief residents will allow these residents to have a high level of responsibility in the Intensive Care Unit, on the hospital wards and in the operating room. The residents will interact with other learners, including medical students and physician assistant students, to develop their leadership and teaching skills and to learn to work with complex healthcare teams. 

Las Vegas represents an exceptional opportunity for surgical training with over two million people in Clark County and the surrounding areas. Our residents are exposed to a broad range of pathology and a robust operative experience. Our goal is to provide our residents with the opportunity and the experience to emerge as leaders in the surgical profession.

Candidates who are interested in joining us in the Valley Health System General Surgery Residency should apply through the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) and the Electronic Resident Application System (ERAS). We are planning to begin reviewing applications in October and interviewing prospective residents from November-January. Thank you for your interest in our program.