About The Department

The Department of Anesthesia is committed to the delivery of excellent, compassionate clinical care; the development of outstanding future clinicians, thinkers and leaders; and the advancement of knowledge through scientific and clinical discovery. Our efforts are guided by our responsibility to patients' well-being, the education of students who represent the future of medicine, and the importance of discovery in the advancement of medicine. We recognize the contributions of each member of the Department of Anesthesia, and we respect and collaborate with colleagues throughout the institution to achieve common goals.

Mission

The Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine is committed to the delivery of exemplary, compassionate clinical care; the development of outstanding future clinicians, thinkers and leaders; and the advancement of knowledge through scientific and clinical discovery. Our efforts are guided by our responsibility to patients' well-being, the education of students who represent the future of medicine, and the importance of discovery in the advancement of medicine. We recognize the contributions of each member of the Department of Anesthesia, and we respect and collaborate with colleagues throughout the Medical University of South Carolina to enrich the future of medicine and improve the quality of patient care.

History

Charleston’s first anesthesiologist, John Marion Brown, established the Medical University of South Carolina's residency program in 1949 and became professor and chair of the newly created Department of Anesthesia.

Since those early beginnings, the Medical University has evolved into a world-class, state-of-the-art institution, cited by U.S. News and World Report as one of the nation’s best in treatment of digestive disease and psychiatric illness and one of America’s best graduate schools in 2004. Other awards include the 2004-2005 Consumer Choice Award of the National Research Corporation, Solucient’s 100 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals and HCLA-Sachs Institute’s Top 100 Hospitals for Stroke Treatment. The Department of Anesthesia has kept pace with the institution’s tremendous strides in health care delivery and the challenges of innovations in the practice and science of anesthesiology, complex surgical procedures and non-operative interventional specialties. Today, we administer more than 37,000 anesthetics annually to a diverse patient population, from the smallest neonate to patients requiring high-risk, complex surgical procedures.