Summa Western Reserve Hospital offers a four-year learning and training residency program in General Surgery as outlined by the American College of Osteopathic Surgeons and the American Osteopathic Association. It includes training by surgical specialists in urology, vascular and thoracic surgery, pediatrics, plastic surgery, trauma, gynecology, and oncological surgery.

As a result of the program, the resident will develop the comprehensive consideration of diagnostic and differential diagnostic procedures to develop diagnostic competency. The resident should also develop an understanding and correlation of laboratory procedures, including not only the clinical laboratory but the radiological, pathological, and nuclear laboratories.

He/she will also develop an understanding and correlation with relation to specialty fields such as internal medicine, pathology, radiology, anesthesiology, emergency medicine, oncology, and gastroenterology.

The program will also emphasize the study of anatomy, primarily directed to surgical anatomy; the study of pathology, both gross and microscopic. The study and understanding of physiological functions of the human body; and particularly the understanding of the deviations from normal in all phases of body function and body chemistry including the use of osteopathic manipulative therapy.

The program will teach techniques of surgical procedures necessary to develop not only technical competency in the art of surgery, but an appreciation of the tissues of the human body and the need for adhering to physiological principles; and preservation of the musculoskeletal system in regard to surgical care of the patient.

The program will also emphasize the instillation of ethical and moral standards and the osteopathic concept.