About Us

Welcome to the Department of Anesthesiology at UT Health San Antonio. As Chair, I could not be more enthusiastic about the present and future of our Department. To meet our missions of teaching, clinical service, research and operational excellence, we are training some of the finest anesthesiologists, providing high-quality, patient-centered care, creating infrastructure for clinical research and data science. My vision for our department includes physician leadership development and an ACGME fellowship for health informatics in the coming year.

We currently have 63 residents in our 4-year program. We filled our 2022 entering class on Match Day with 16 outstanding candidates who’s average USMLE Part I score is 233 and average Part II score is 243. Our 40+ faculty members are fully committed to providing every learning opportunity for our residents. Currently, 95% of our graduates are board-certified by the American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA), and 87% of our CA1s taking the ABA BASIC examination in 2022 passed on the first attempt, with three scoring in the top 10th percentile. Our core program as well as our fellowships in Pain Medicine and Critical Care Medicine have attained a 10-year resurvey cycle from the ACGME.

University Hospital, our primary teaching facility, is a state-of-the-art tertiary care center that is responsible for both adult and pediatric level 1 trauma for all of South Texas. Last year we provided anesthesia services for over 18,800 cases including cardiothoracic surgery, hepato-biliary transplant, lung transplant, advanced neurosurgical cases, acute stroke interventions, orthopedic joint and trauma, as well as robotic and high-risk gynecological surgery. We cover a robust women’s health service that saw almost 3,000 deliveries last year, many involving high risk maternal conditions. Our new 300 bed Women’s and Children’s Hospital will be open soon. The growth target for 2022 is projected to surpass 5,000 deliveries per year.  Starting in the Fall of 2022, our critical care anesthesiologists will help lead a new intensive care unit intended to provide care for post-transplant (liver and kidney) and cardiac surgery patients.  This will add to a more critical care experience, knowledge and exposure for our residents.  San Antonio is one of the fastest growing cities in the U.S. and University Hospital is building to meet our community’s future health care needs. In addition, our hospital system is consistently ranked as the best hospital in San Antonio by US News and World Report.

Our other teaching facility, the Audie L. Murphy Veterans Administration Hospital, part of the South Texas Veterans Healthcare System, experiences approximately 1.2 million patient visits per year. The Audie L. Murphy Hospital trains 219 residents yearly, which is the 3rd highest total in the VA system nationwide. The hospital has 11 operating rooms that includes two robotic surgery systems and cardiothoracic surgery suites. The VA campus, which is directly adjacent to UT Health is also the home of San Antonio Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center, which is one of only 5 of these centers in the country. Our outpatient pain practice is affiliated with UT Health, which consists of over 800 providers in South Texas.  The Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU) is covered by our critical care anesthesiologists.  In the SICU, our residents provide critical care services for post-surgical patients with critical care needs including cardiac, vascular, general, ENT, and neurosurgical services.  We oversee an advanced interventional pain service that spans multiple sites within the South Texas Medical Center and the Hill Country.

During the past academic year our department was awarded a Department of Defense grant in order to further the development of limb preservation technology which was invented by UT Health San Antonio Anesthesiology researchers. Other faculty members of ours were awarded UT Health President’s Translational and Entrepreneurial Research grants in order to further develop and commercialize medical devices which pertain to patient safety, and airway management. Additional research initiatives include reducing the abuse potential of opioids, radiofrequency ablation technology, and psychological therapy for chronic pain.

Please take a few more minutes to review our pages on this website detailing our programs and initiatives. Whether you are a prospective resident, patient, or faculty member, I am sure you will agree with me that the Department of Anesthesiology at the UT Health San Antonio, Texas is a dynamic and progressive contributor to the health of our patients and the field of anesthesiology.