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Anesthesiology Residency Program

GME update Dr Samit Ghia and Dr Elisabeth Abramowicz

Our residency program has a long and illustrious history. Accredited in 1969 with WMC as its primary training site, the program’s sponsoring institution was NYMC. In 2018, Westchester Medical Center, massively bigger, and by then, the flagship hospital of a large network, took over the responsibilities as sponsoring institution. Along with the institution, the program has grown and was recently approved to expand to 64 accredited categorical positions.

Institutional growth includes hiring anesthesiologists to the highest levels of systemwide leadership, acquiring hospitals across the Hudson River, creating a brand-new ICU building at the Valhalla campus and soon integrating a new electronic medical record system. Departmental growth has followed suit with exciting hirings of academic faculty.

As a result, WMC Anesthesiology is what we call a “complete program” – our residents are exposed to the whole spectrum of both adult and pediatric interventional, obstetrical and surgical medical care, which includes: trauma, burn and solid organ transplant, ECMO and the whole range of mechanical circulatory assist devices, as well as a comprehensive non-OR anesthesia exposure, including mechanical thrombectomy for stroke, radiation therapy, complex interventional cardiology, and ambulatory surgery.

To match the robust clinical exposure, faculty have developed a strong educational program that includes focused didactics, simulation, technical skills training, exam preparation, and innovative educational tools. Much of our curriculum has been created in direct response to resident feedback. We are immensely proud of the program’s evolution, its reputation and standing and most of all, of our current residents and the 100+ graduates who are working and thriving in more than 10 States as Diplomates of the American Board of Anesthesiology generalists and fellowship-trained subspecialists.

Lastly, residents are going on to successful careers after training in a culture of support and well-being. We are striving to foster a community that motivates residents to build lifelong relationships that extend beyond the hospital. We thank you for your interest in our program and look forward to crossing paths.

Samit Ghia, MD
Cardiac Anesthesiologist
Residency Program Director             
Westchester Medical Center

A. Elisabeth Abramowicz, MD, FASA
Professor of Anesthesiology
Vice Chair of Education
New York Medical College Westchester Medical Center

Program Overview

The Clinical Anesthesiology (CA) resident training takes place at Westchester Medical Center (WMC) in Valhalla, NY, the main rotation site, and two community hospitals: Good Samaritan Hospital (GS) in Suffern , NY and Mid-Hudson Regional Hospital (MHRH) in Poughkeepsie, NY (for total of 3 months over four years of training). Both hospitals are administratively a part of WMC. The MHRH experience includes a no-call rotation/no weekend/no holiday rotation at our Poughkeepsie site, while the GS experience includes a month each of OB Anesthesia and Cardiac Anesthesia CA-3 residents also can complete an elective rotation in obstetric anesthesia at Mt. Sinai and Morningside West Hospital in Manhattan.

Program Curriculum

This program participates in NRMP and accepts applications only through ERAS.

In the 2027 Match, we offer 13 positions in the Categorical Track – 2157040C0 – with a start date of July 1, 2027.

Medical Students: a complete application consists of

  • ERAS Common Application Form
  • Medical school transcript
  • Official USMLE transcript with Step I (or Pass) and Step II CK scores (Students at Osteopathic Medical Schools should also submit their COMLEX  scores)
  • Dean’s letter (MSPE)
  • Personal Statement – please include information about you that the other elements of the application do not relay. This helps us decide whether you could be successful in the Anesthesiology Residency at Westchester Medical Center.
  • At least three letters of recommendation from clinical faculty who have direct (best) or composite knowledge of the applicant’s performance. We do value letters from Anesthesiologists.

Applicants who are already in training MUST provide a letter of recommendation from the current Program Director.

All attempts will be made to schedule the interview on a date that is convenient for the selected candidate. Applicants will have protected time to interact with our residents in a break-out session.

Off-cycle applicants are considered only if there is a vacancy posted on the AAMC’s FindAResident website.

Resident Life

Our Clinical Locations

Westchester Medical Center

Westchester Medical Center shares its leafy campus with New York Medical College in Valhalla, NY, approximately 20 miles north of New York City. It is a Level 1 Trauma and Burn Center and a major hub for specialized care referrals. Here, we take care of patients from a very large catchment area stretching from the northern border of New York City to the Catskill Mountains.

Westchester Medical Center has a pediatric hospital (Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital) with eight dedicated pediatric operating rooms as well as many other non-operating room anesthetizing sites, including MRI, radiation and nuclear medicine, and endoscopy. The Ambulatory Care Pavilion, which opened in July 2019, added many anesthetizing locations, both OR and Non-OR.

A Community Anesthesia site in Poughkeepsie, NY (Mid-Hudson Regional Hospital, a member of Westchester Medical Center Health Network) hosts two residents per rotation block who focus on joint replacement anesthesia and community pediatric anesthesia under fellowship-trained faculty.

Construction is underway on the 128-bed state-of-the-art Westchester Medical Center Critical Care Tower, a $220 million project that, when completed early in 2027, will span 162,000 square feet over five floors.

Our caseload includes a full profile of cardiac, interventional pulmonary and thoracic, complex orthopedic, neurosurgical and solid organ transplant interventions, to name the busiest services. We have a large heart failure and ECMO referral program. Trauma orthopedics and surgery provide our residents a great variety of “open” cases. Residents participate in minimally invasive and robotic interventions in gynecologic-oncology, urology, colorectal, endocrine and thoracic surgery, as well as complex cardiac and neurological endovascular interventions, both pediatric and adult. The Acute and Chronic Pain Management care rotations cover both the pediatric and adult inpatients and outpatients, including complex consultations for patients in the Burn ICU.

Good Samaritan Hospital

Good Samaritan Hospital is a community hospital in Suffern, NY, located 23 highway miles from WMC.  Most cases at GS are elective, and clinical services focus on excellent patient experience, rapid OR turnover and complication-free recovery.

Typically, the first of the two required Obstetric and Cardiac Anesthesiology rotations are assigned at Good Samaritan Hospital. Two residents rotate at GS every month.

Mount Sinai Morningside and West

Located on the Upper West Side of New York City, Mount Sinai Morningside and West provides our CA-3 residents who have a special interest in OB Anesthesia an elective, four-week rotation on a very busy OB service (about 6,000 per year) with a mix of lower and higher complexity deliveries.