The Quality and Patient Safety section is dedicated to ensuring that every patient who enters our emergency department receives the highest standard of care. Our mission is to create a culture of continuous improvement, where clinical processes are regularly evaluated and refined to minimize errors, enhance patient outcomes, and optimize the overall patient experience. Given the dynamic and often unpredictable nature of emergency medicine, we emphasize proactive measures to anticipate challenges and implement solutions that promote patient well-being.

To achieve this, we prioritize ongoing staff education and training, ensuring that our healthcare providers stay up to date with the latest medical advancements, best practices, and evidence-based protocols. By integrating these protocols into daily practice, we enhance efficiency, reduce variability in care, and improve patient safety.

A cornerstone of our approach is fostering open communication and collaboration among all members of the healthcare team, from physicians and nurses to support staff and administrators. We encourage a multidisciplinary, team-based approach where individuals feel empowered to speak up, share insights, and identify potential risks before they escalate into critical issues. Through structured debriefings, performance reviews, and feedback mechanisms, we create an environment where learning from both successes and challenges is a key driver of improvement. Our focus on quality and safety not only enhances patient trust and satisfaction but also strengthens our ability to respond to emergencies with precision and confidence.

Welcome to the Pediatric Emergency Medicine (PEM) section at the University of Vermont Medical Center. Our mission is to deliver the highest quality care to children across Vermont and northern New York through a comprehensive approach that integrates clinical excellence, education, research, and advocacy.

At PEM, we are a close-knit community, deeply connected to Vermont’s collaborative healthcare network. We work seamlessly with community pediatricians, pediatric hospitalists, and specialists at the Vermont Children’s Hospital to provide exceptional care. Our patients range from routine ambulatory cases to those with complex chronic conditions and critically injured.

Education is a cornerstone of our mission. We provide hands-on training for rotating residents in emergency medicine, pediatrics, and family medicine. Beyond the bedside, we are actively engaged in teaching, quality improvement initiatives, and system-level enhancements to optimize pediatric emergency care. Our research focuses on critical areas such as medical complexity, childhood injuries, and pediatric emergency medical services. Additionally, we are dedicated advocates for our patients, using our expertise to improve child health. Through clinical care, education, research, and advocacy, our PEM team is committed to making a lasting impact on the lives of children and their families.

The Section of Geriatric and Palliative Emergency Medicine at the University of Vermont provides specialized, compassionate care for older adults and for patients with serious illnesses in the Emergency Department. 

Geriatric Emergency Medicine focuses on the needs of older adults based on geriatric principles. We aim to address the unique needs of aging patients, through the implementation of comprehensive assessments, minimization of unnecessary hospitalizations, and optimization of quality of life. All of the Emergency Departments within the UVM Health Network are certified as Level III Geriatric Emergency Departments by the American College of Emergency Physicians. 

Palliative Emergency Medicine emphasizes the delivery of compassionate, and goal-concordant care to patients facing serious illnesses or nearing the end of life. Recognizing that patient goals and treatment decisions can evolve as circumstances change, we strive to offer flexible care that adapts to new symptoms, diagnoses, and information. Whether patients choose further curative treatment or transition to comfort-focused care, our priority is to ensure care aligns with patients' wishes, while addressing the physical, emotional, and spiritual distress associated with serious illness.

Our mission is to enhance care for older adults and for those living with serious illness. Through education, policy development, improvements in clinical processes, and multidisciplinary collaboration with the Divisions of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine, we advance training and support for patients, families, and healthcare teams, ensuring high-quality, patient-centered care.

The University of Vermont Medical Center and UVM Larner College of Medicine Department of Emergency Medicine programs offer residents, fellows, and medical students outstanding training in progressive prehospital care in a rural EMS system. EMS is a critical component of Emergency Medicine and our curriculum is designed to prepare future leaders in the field of EMS with an understanding of the unique principals of prehospital care and medical direction. It also provides the motivated emergency medicine resident with the background necessary for entry into an accredited EMS Fellowship program. The residency program works closely with both regional and state Vermont EMS to provide a wide range of opportunities including urban, rural, and wilderness practice environments.

Direct Patient Care

Our 2nd year residents will function as EMS physicians joining local Paramedic EMS agencies as part of the team providing direct patient care. This hands-on training provides opportunities for the resident to gain valuable experience in the challenges of providing patient care and medical direction in the prehospital setting. Medical students may arrange ride-alongs with local EMS agencies and highly interested residents may arrange additional opportunities with escalating responsibilities. 

 

Medical Direction

Emergency Medicine residents will complete an EMS Medical Direction Training Program. During all EM rotations, PGY-2 and PGY-3 residents will provide online medical direction to EMS under the supervision of EM faculty. During the 2nd year EMS rotation, residents will review prehospital cases for quality assurance and performance improvement and present at the monthly EMS case review. Residents will also have opportunities to work on larger scale State of Vermont EMS performance reviews, protocol development, and education, including teaching for the paramedic school and the annual Vermont EMS Conference.

Research

Residents and medical students may participate in ongoing EMS research or develop independent projects with faculty support. Vermont is one of the most rural EMS systems in the nation and serves as an excellent laboratory for rural EMS research. 

 

Residents who wish to pursue skills within the subspecialty will have opportunities to participate in search and rescue (SAR) teams, work alongside ski patrol, and utilize expedition medicine skills. All our graduating residents will not only have competence in wilderness medicine core content, but will be equipped to actively participate in SAR, conduct wilderness and event medical care, take leadership roles in wilderness and rescue organizations, and successfully enter a wilderness medicine fellowship program.

Interested residents will be offered mentorship to develop teaching and leadership roles as they progress through the curriculum. Residents interested in pursuing a career in academic wilderness medicine will be supported in developing research and educational projects through our Wilderness Medicine track. 

Wilderness Medicine Elective

The Wilderness Medicine Elective at the Larner offers students an opportunity to focus on both the content and the unique problem solving and cognitive approach to caring for patients in remote or austere environments. 
The course is a 2-week intensive curriculum that takes fourth year students out of the hospital and into the woods and lakes. The course includes both day outings and overnight adventures. 
 

Wilderness Student Interest Group

Our wilderness medicine student interest group (SIG) provides opportunities for medical students to foster their desire to learn more about the field of wilderness medicine before entering residency. The Larner SIG is a very active and committed community that draws on experience that students acquired prior to medical school as well as the growing interest of those new to the field. We host acclaimed regional speakers, faculty lectures, and various events in the wilderness setting. 

 

The UVMMC Department of Emergency Medicine Division of Sports Medicine aims to provide comprehensive, clinically-relevant musculoskeletal medicine, sports medicine, and orthopedics education to medical students, residents, and faculty at the local, regional, and national level while clinically serving the local and regional population in the Emergency Department and on site at venues of athletics competitions and activities. The section helps provide care at the Three Peaks Medical Clinic at Sugarbush Ski Resort, provides medical direction and staffing for the Vermont City Marathon, provides medical coverage for Ironman Lake Placid, and helps cover athletic competitions for the NCAA Division I University of Vermont Catamounts.

In their free time, members of the Sports Medicine Section enjoy taking advantage of all the opportunities that Vermont provides to be physically active including biking, hiking, swimming, paddling, running, and playing hockey and soccer.