PA Fellowship
Letter from the Directors
Welcome to the Regions Hospital Emergency Medicine Physician Assistant (EM PA) Fellowship. We are proud to be the first EMPA fellowship program in MN. We are fortunate to be able to collaborate with a well established and highly competitive physician emergency medicine residency, which was established in 1996. Regions Hospital is a Level I Trauma and Burn Center and is the state’s first Level I Pediatric Trauma Center. The emergency medicine faculty are affiliated with the University of Minnesota and provide training for emergency medicine residents, rotating residents, and medical students. The PA staff provide training for PA students from local, regional, and national PA programs. The PA fellows work alongside physician residents, study the core curriculum, and participate in weekly conferences in addition to their clinical rotation schedule which includes supplementary off-service rotations.
Regions Hospital has a long history of education dating back to it’s founding as Ancker Hospital and later St. Paul-Ramsey Medical Center. In 2009 a new addition to the hospital was completed with an expansion of the emergency department. The increased bed capacity led to changes in the staffing models to increase provider coverage, which has included the increased utilization of PA providers. The Regions Emergency Center expanded again in 2022 and again our PA staffing numbers were increased to meet the staffing needs.
With the rising volume of patients with increasingly complex medical problems that are being cared for in our emergency departments at Regions Hospital and Lakeview Hospital, the benefit of advanced training for newly employed PAs has been recognized. The organization of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) and Society of Emergency Medicine Physician Assistants (SEMPA) advocate for the advantages of advanced training for PAs. We agree that postgraduate training will allow PAs to refine their knowledge and skills, and to successfully integrate into the specialty of emergency medicine at an accelerated rate compared to on-the-job training. Employers, physicians, and patients benefit from PA fellowship trained providers and the training will lead to increased competence, confidence, and job satisfaction to the provider.
We here at Regions are privileged to be able to offer the opportunity for the motivated and intellectually curious physician assistant to become a leader in the trend towards advanced training for PAs in emergency medicine. Please explore the web site and contact us if you have questions.
Michael T. Paddock, DO, MS
PA Fellowship Program Medical Director
Regions Hospital Emergency Department
Michael.T.Paddock@HealthPartners.com
Ann Verhoeven, PA-C, MMSc
PA Fellowship Program Director
Regions Hospital Emergency Department
Ann.R.Verhoeven@HealthPartners.com
651-254-6953