New General Surgery Residency Program comes to fruition at DRMC

The new General Surgery Residency Program at Desert Regional Medical Center (DRMC) has officially begun with six residents taking to the halls of the hospital.

The program officially started July 1, 2023, as part of the hospital being declared a level one trauma center back in March.

According to Dr. Dan Ludi, the program director, the residents are already training in the trauma bay, learning trauma codes, among other duties.

Dr. Ludi said his goal for the program is to make it community-oriented and bring more surgeries to the area.

“We are for the community. We want to get in touch with them," he explained. "We want to form surgeons that are going to be for this community, they are going to stay here, and serve them.”

Every step of the way the residents are supervised by Dr. Ludi and other attendees at the hospital.

While there are just a handful of residents now, every year three new residents are expected to join the program until there are a total of 15 at once.