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Acute Care Surgery

Leadership

Murray Cohen, MD
Division Director

1100 Walnut Street
Medical Office Building, 7th Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19107

Diversity & Inclusion
Department of Surgery

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Our services as a whole are integrated in our existing hospital resources, including:

  • Four spacious and bright trauma bays 
  • An Emergency Department Operating Room next to the trauma bay where trauma patients meeting predefined criteria who may require immediate life-saving surgery can be brought for initial evaluation and resuscitation, followed by any indicated definitive emergency surgical procedures without the delay and inherent risks of further transport.
  • Three modern integrated trauma-designated intensive care units
  • Trauma designated step down and medical surgical units
  • Designated trauma physicians liaisons from all subspecialties
  • The integration of the trauma performance improvement program as part of  the Hospital Performance Improvement Program.

Our Division encompasses six distinct services: 

Jefferson is a Level I Trauma Center designated by the Pennsylvania Trauma Systems Foundation. Our center has been in continuous operation since 1987 and provides service to the entire tri-state area including inter-hospital transport and direct transport from the accident scene through JeffSTAT.

Our Trauma Resuscitation Area is a separate part of the Emergency Department. The center is staffed by 18 board certified surgeons/surgical intensivists who are available in house 24/7.

An important part of Jefferson’s trauma program is the Spinal Cord Injury Center. Jefferson is a designated spinal cord injury center and our surgeons work as part of a multidisciplinary team of orthopedic surgeons, neurosurgeons, nurses, physiatrists, physical therapists, case managers, and social workers to provide comprehensive and quality care to patients with spine and spinal cord injuries. The trauma center admits nearly 2000 injured patients per year.

In many hospitals a patient requiring emergency surgery (in the emergency room or already admitted to the hospital for another problem) would have to wait for a surgeon to become available or at night wait for their surgeon to come in from home. Not so at Jefferson! 

Our Division provides emergency surgery coverage at the attending surgeon level in-house 24/7. Patients requiring emergency surgery get evaluation and treatment by a board-certified attending surgeon quickly and efficiently. Fewer delays in needed emergency surgery result in better outcomes for our patients and shorter hospital stays.

All of our physicians maintain active general surgical practices treating all types of surgical disease processes, including:

  • gallbladder and biliary tract disease, 
  • intestinal problems, 
  • advanced laparoscopy, and 
  • hernia repair  

At least one of our surgeons has office hours every day of the week Monday through Friday.

Our offices are located at 1100 Walnut Street, 5th Floor, in Philadelphia. We can also see patients at Paoli Hospital and Lankenau Medical Center.

Most insurance plans are accepted. Appointments for new patients and follow up can be made by calling 215-955-2165 or 215-955-8813.

Our Division is responsible for providing care to all critically ill surgical patients at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in the:

  • 25 bed Surgical Intensive Care Unit
  • 16 bed intermediate Surgical Intensive Care Unit
  • 14 bed Neurosurgical Intensive Care Unit, and 
  • 16 bed intermediate Neurosurgical Intensive Care Unit

The units are staffed by highly trained and experienced critical care nurses, a team of surgical residents, physician assistants and nurse practitioners. A surgeon who is board certified in general surgery and surgical critical care is present in-house 24/7 to provide care to our critically ill and injured patients.

All patients are evaluated daily by a multi-disciplinary team consisting of the critical care surgeon, SICU residents, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, pharmacist, respiratory therapist and dietitian. Most patients admitted to the SICU are trauma, complex elective and emergent general surgery, advanced surgical oncology, vascular surgery and multi-organ transplantation.

Our Division plays a critical role in the rescue of patients with surgical complications following an operative or interventional procedure.

Patients are referred to us from within the institution and across the region for expert care and rescue by our surgeons. Most often, these patients have wound complications, uncontrolled sepsis or acute obstruction. 

In addition to direct patient care, we provide crucial support to other providers in the surgical rescue of surgical and procedural complications and serve as an essential service for complex patients requiring specialized University-level expertise and coordination of care.

Our Center is staffed by our trauma team under the direction of William B. Hughes, MD. In addition to our acute burn treatment setting, the Center also offers an outpatient office and JeffConnect for follow-up visits and less severe cases.

Jefferson Burn Center
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