Program Director

Thank you for your interest in our anesthesiology residency program. Our program is a fully accredited integrated four year program. Our residents have been very successful in achieving board certification and, as a group, routinely achieve scores above the 80 ^th percentile of residency cohorts. We are located in the heart of central Texas.

Temple, and its surrounding area, is a growing community of approximately 200,000 people. Scott & White Hospital is a large referral center that draws patients from all over Texas as well as other states and countries. The hospital has over 500 staff physicians and clinics/hospitals in Round Rock, Waco, and College Station among other satellite locations.

Founded in 1897, Scott & White Hospital was originally created to care for railroad employees. Since that time, the clinic and hospital have grown into one of the most recognized names in healthcare today.

The history of the anesthesia department is important as well. In 1906, Claudia Potter was hired and became the state’s first anesthesiologist. Following Dr. Potter was Dr. Charles Gillespie who established the Department of Anesthesiology. A few years later, he would establish the first anesthesiology residency program in the state at Scott & White Hospital. I am happy to report that our department continues to grow and has more members now than at any previous time in its history.

Scott & White Hospital has blossomed into a leading hospital nationally and was again named a Top 15 teaching hospital by Thomson Healthcare (formerly Solucient) in 2007 (in such distinguished company as Yale-New Haven, Cleveland Clinic and Mayo Clinic).

We are the primary teaching hospital for Texas A&M College of Medicine and look forward to continued association with the College of Medicine as it plans to expand significantly in the upcoming years.

Scott & White is recognized as a Level 1 Trauma Center and draws trauma patients from all over central Texas.

We have a diverse faculty from many different educational backgrounds. Several have extensive experience in the private practice sector. In addition, recent faculty additions have been recruited from top academic departments around the country (Penn State, UTMB-Galveston, UT-Southwestern, Brooke Army Medical Center, Stanford, Virginia Mason Clinic).

Faculty achievements continue to accumulate in the form of research accomplishments, publications, and regional/national speaking engagements (two faculty are giving refresher course lectures at this year’s ASA meeting in Orlando and, each year, several faculty members present lectures at the annual meeting of the Texas Society of Anesthesiologists).

In addition to these academic achievements, our faculty is very clinically strong – providing the residency group with outstanding instruction in TEE, ultrasound guided regional anesthesia, cutting edge critical care experience, and top notch chronic pain experience among the other aspects of training.

We have been very excited with the quality of our residency matches over the past several years. We have been successful in filling our residency with excellent candidates. We recently expanded to 8 residents per year and have filled those positions at the PGY 1-3 years. The quality of our residency group is stronger than ever and approximately one third of our residents have been elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society.

Many of our residents choose to be involved in research and publication. Our residents have published recently in Anesthesiology, Anesthesia & Analgesia, Canadian Journal of Anesthesia, Atherosclerosis, Shock and Cardiovascular Ultrasound. Many of our residents also submit their work for regional, national, and international meetings.

In the last 3 years, we have had residents present talks and posters at the following national/international meetings: International Anesthesia Research Society Annual Meeting (San Francisco), American Pain Society Meeting (San Antonio, Texas), Society for Obstetric Anesthesiology and Perinatology Annual Meeting (Palm Desert, California and Banff in Alberta, Canada), American Society of Anesthesiologists Annual Meeting (Chicago, San Francisco, Orlando) and The European Atherosclerosis Society Congress (Helsinki, Finland). Several residents have also presented at regional meetings in Tampa, Florida and New Orleans.

Our residents have also sought out leadership positions. Several former residents have served as House Staff Association president or vice president. Last year’s House Staff Association President was one of our CA-2 residents. In addition, we annually send delegates to the ASA and TSA annual meetings. We encourage our residents to seek out local, regional and national leadership positions. Our residents have held leadership positions within the American Society of Regional Anesthesia as well as the Society for Obstetric Anesthesiology and Perinatology.

Many of our residents seek fellowship training beyond residency. They have been very successful recently gaining fellowship positions at such prestigious programs as M.D. Anderson, UT-Southwestern, the International Pain Institute at Texas Tech, University of California - San Francisco, University of Cincinnati, Virginia Mason Clinic and the University of Oklahoma.

Scott & White’s new hospital opened just over a year ago and offers state of the art facilities. This along with other new facilities such as the Ambulatory Surgery Pavilion, the Center for Diagnostic Medicine, the Continuing Care Hospital, and the new Medical Simulation Center strategically place Scott & White at the cutting edge with regards to facilities.

The Temple/Belton/Killeen area is located in the heart of Central Texas and is a community consisting of ~200K with excellent schools and great recreational opportunities (two lakes, mountain biking and hiking trails, hunting, etc.) as well as low crime, low traffic, low cost of living and a central location to numerous metropolitan areas with the following drive times:

• One hour from Austin
• One hour 20 minutes from College Station
• Two hours from Dallas, Ft Worth and San Antonio
• Two hours 20 minutes from Houston
• Three and a half hours from Galveston

These are just a few of the high points of our program that I hope you will consider as you make your decision. The most important consideration is that you will be a member of our "family" and not a "face in a crowd."

As a graduate of this program several years ago, I can tell you that our residents have a strong sense of pride about "their" program. This pride is clearly evident in their recruiting efforts (which are strictly voluntary). They enjoy their program and they wish to see it continue to prosper as a source for future partnerships by recruiting strong candidates.

As you prepare to make the important decision of where to do your residency training, please consider applying to our program. I feel certain that you will be pleasantly surprised at the high quality residency program that is offered at Texas A&M HSC/Scott & White Hospital. We look forward to meeting you.

Sincerely,
Russell K. McAllister M.D.
Associate Professor of Anesthesiology
Residency Director
Texas A&M HSC/Scott & White Hospital

Back to Top