General Surgery Residency

View program expectations and details.

Selection Criteria

Residents are the backbone and greatest asset of a surgical training program. Our stated mission is “to be the best community-based surgical residency program in the southeastern United States.” To fulfill this mission, only the best candidates can be selected. Academic curiosity and self-motivation are vital. A holistic review process is used to determine interview offers.  

Medical school academic achievement, including USMLE or COMLEX scores, is one objective tool for resident selection. An individual’s scores reflect only a portion of their potential, but USMLE / COMLEX scores are predictive of success in passing the American Board of Surgery certification. Letters of recommendation, especially when personalized, are an important supplement to the transcript. A personal visit to Spartanburg is encouraged, as this experience is invaluable to the applicant and has a positive effect on the evaluation process.

Our Interview Policy

There are more than 900 applications for our three categorical positions with an interview extended to approximately 50 students. All qualified applicants are evaluated via a holistic review process. 

Spartanburg Regional Medical Center’s Surgery Residency program strives to provide equal evaluation opportunity to all applicants and prohibits discrimination of any type based on race, color, religion, age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, disability status, veteran status or any other non-merit-based factor. 

We exclusively utilize ERAS for the application process. 

We will be participating in the ERAS supplemental application but it is not a requirement. 

The Interview Process

When you meet or faculty and residents, you will know that you are indeed looking at the best community program in the Southeast.  Therefore, interviews for residency positions will be held in person. 

Interview Dates for the academic year starting July 2025 will be: 

• November 8, 2024
• November 22, 2024
• December 6, 2024
• December 13, 2024
• January 10, 2025

A casual dinner the evening before your interview is provided so that you may meet with a representative group of our current residents. In addition to dinner, the program will arrange for a single night’s lodging, at our expense. On the day of the interview, you should be able to leave Spartanburg in the early afternoon. Convenient airports are Greenville-Spartanburg (GSP) or Charlotte (CLT). The program does not reimburse travel expenses.

Application review begins as soon as ERAS opens to programs and only complete applications are reviewed. To facilitate travel for our in-person interviews, initial offers will be extended starting October 14, 2024.  All applicants who receive an offer will have a slot available for scheduling. Interview offers will continue to be extended until all slots are filled.

International Medical Graduates

Each year we receive more than 200 applications from International Medical Graduates.  

• Our application process is exclusively through ERAS - do not forward CVs through email or paper mail. They will not be reviewed.  
• Deadlines for application are posted on ERAS.
• We do not accept trainees who require VISA sponsorship. 

Preliminary Residents

We offer up to three non-designated preliminary positions. Overall, preliminary residents have valued their time at Spartanburg. Recently designated residents continued their training in specialties such as anesthesiology, PM & R, radiology and surgery. 

Non-designated residents have the same responsibilities, rotation schedules and opportunities as our categorical residents. We do offer individualized opportunities to pursue specialty focus to prepare for subsequent years.  

Applicants for preliminary positions only will be contacted early in the interview season with offers to arrange virtual interviews in January.

Externships

Externships to medical students from accredited US medical schools are important in contributing to the educational experience for all involved. Often students rotating here match into Spartanburg Regional residency programs. Students on a fourth-year sub-internship with us are given the opportunity to meet with the program director and faculty while they are on rotation.

Our graduating residents typically record greater than 50 percent more than the required 850 cases for graduation. That said, surgical training is more than accumulating a large number of surgical procedures. We pride ourselves in the academic component of our program. Our American Board of Surgery first-time pass rates are excellent. Didactic conferences occur within protected time and include Morbidity/Mortality conference, Mock Oral Boards, Journal Club, ACS Case review, Trauma Case Review, and Vascular Case review. We utilize the SCORE curriculum with weekly conferences, including resident-led didactics, small group sessions and periodic competitions with generous prizes. We have also recently revamped our surgical boot camp, skills lab and robotic surgery curricula.  

We have 15 subspecialty-trained faculty members specializing in breast surgery, trauma/critical care, vascular surgery, cardiothoracic surgery, plastic and reconstructive surgery, colorectal surgery and complex general surgical oncology. In addition to our academicians (who have faculty appointments from the Medical University of South Carolina), residents rotate with surgeons who have spent their professional lives in private practice. Many of these surgeons trained at Spartanburg Medical Center and are dedicated to fulfilling our residency mission statement of striving to be the best. They are also able to offer a practical approach to the business side of surgical practice.  

We are obsessive about education and patient care with a foundation in evidence-based surgical practice. We monitor our surgical outcomes and strive for error prevention and continued quality improvement. Opportunities to participate in institutional and regional quality or research programs abound. We teach and provide the tools needed to pursue these activities throughout a resident’s time here.  

Finally, we pride ourselves on the personal relationships we create with our residents. We understand that we are training them to be our future partners, colleagues and even our surgeons. These relationships help us to ensure no resident falls behind, and each gets the individualized focus and training they need to achieve their goals.

Salary is commensurate with other residency and fellowship programs in the state. Benefit information will be covered in depth during orientation sessions. For an overview summary of salary and benefits, please click here to learn more.

Spartanburg Medical Center offers many of the advantages of larger academic institutions while giving each resident a more personal experience. We are particularly concerned about the quality of our resident's life, both within and outside of the hospital. We encourage and support the family life of each of our residents. The program is sincere in adhering to the Residency Review Committee (RRC) work-hour regulations. Also, several events are sponsored by our institution throughout the year, such as sporting events, family picnics, bike races and other social events. 

Spartanburg is a vibrant city of 40,000 within the Greenville-Spartanburg metropolitan area of more than 1 million people. The county is in excellent financial shape; BMW built in the area in 1996 and continues to create excellent job opportunities. Advance America, QS/1 Data Systems, and Denny’s house their corporate headquarters here. Downtown Spartanburg has entered a renaissance, and new growth is seen monthly. The Chapman Cultural Center is a $48 million project that enhanced performance arts in the area. Spartanburg is home of several colleges (Wofford, Converse, USC Upstate, Spartanburg Methodist College) and has a strong public school system. Housing is affordable (median home price $225,000), and virtually all of our categorical residents purchase homes during residency. Traffic is minimal – the average commute is only 10 minutes. 

Amenities offered to our residents include free meals, free parking, gym membership and access to a private golf club (Carolina Country Club). We also purchase surgical loupes for our categorical residents, and each resident is given a generous yearly book allowance. A stipend is also provided to residents presenting at regional and national conferences.

Please direct all postgraduate training verification requests to the Program Coordinator for the residency or fellowship program completed.

What information needs to be included with each verification of training request?

• The name of the trainee
• The trainee’s date of birth
• The program specialty and dates of training provided by the trainee
• A release of information form signed by the trainee

The Graduate Medical Education (GME) administrative staff are allowed to verify postgraduate training (Internship/Residency/Fellowship) completed at Spartanburg Medical Center on a limited basis. Administrative staff may verify dates of training, specialty training program and completion of training.

Forms that require Program Director review and signature:

• Forms that required the Program Director signature
• Forms that ask for procedure or privileging verification
• Forms with direct oversight questions (i.e. “Based on your observation…”)

Michael G. Mount, FACS

Title: Program Director General Surgery Residency Program, Vice Chair Department of Surgery, Associate Trauma Medical Director
Appointment: Associate Professor of Surgery
Medical School: Western University of Health Sciences​​​​​​​
Residency: Spartanburg Regional Medical Center​​​​​​​
Fellowship: Surgical Critical Care – Medical College of Wisconsin
Clinical Interests: Surgical Quality Initiatives, Laparoscopic Hernia, Critical Care Ultrasound
Membership: Fellow American College of Surgeons, EAST, AAST, NBOME National Faculty, South Eastern Surgical Congress, American Osteopathic Association, Society of Critical Care Medicine

Kristine Lombardozzi MD, FACS

Title: Director, Surgical and Trauma ICU, Assistant Director of Trauma 
Appointment: Assistant Professor
Medical School: University of Minnesota
Residency: Indiana University
Fellowship: Orlando Regional Medical Center
Membership: Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM), board member of the state chapter of SCCM, Eastern Association for Surgery on Trauma (EAST).

Thomas Ashley MD, FACS

Title: Director, Skills Lab
Appointment: Assistant Professor
Medical School: Wayne State University 
Residency: Henry Ford Hospital 1983 -1988
Fellowship: Colorectal Surgery - Henry Ford Hospital
Conference: Weekly Surgical Skills Lab
Clinical Interests: GI surgery, endoscopy, trauma surgical skills
Membership: Fellow American College of Surgeons, SAGES

W. Cuyler Calton MD, FACS

Title: Director of the Vascular Surgery Section, Medical Director of the Vascular Lab
Appointment: Assistant Professor
Medical School: Duke University
Residency: Dwight David Eisenhower Army Medical Center
Fellowship: Geisinger Medical Center
Membership: Foothills Cardiothoracic and Vascular, Society of Vascular Surgery, Peripheral Vascular Surgery Society, Society for Clinical Vascular Surgery, and the South Carolina Vascular Society

Charles Morrow, Jr. MD, FACS

Title: Co-Chief Medical Officer and Surgery Faculty
Appointment: Associate Professor
Medical School: University of South Carolina
Residency: SMC 1993-1998
Fellowship: Trauma and Critical Care - Orlando Regional Medical Center
Clinical Interests: Trauma and Critical Care
Conference: Trauma M & M
Membership: Chair of the South Carolina ACS Committee on Trauma, ATLS and National Trauma DataBank sub-committees of the national ACS Committee on Trauma, Eastern Association for Surgery on Trauma (EAST) Careers in Trauma Committee and the Society of Critical Care Medicine Patient.

Christophe L. Nguyen MD, FACS

Appointment: Associate Professor
Medical School: Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX.
General Surgery Residency: Medical University of South Carolina
Research Fellowship: Hollings Cancer Center, Charleston, SC.
Surgical Oncology Fellowship: Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA.
Membership: Society of Surgical Oncology, the American College of Surgeons, and the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
Links: Nguyen Fox Chase, Two years Additional Research 
Clinical Interests: General surgical oncology; foregut esophagus/stomach cancer; hepatobiliary and pancreas; liver metastases; RFA, pancreatic cancer; thoracic oncology, (lung cancer, VATS, mediastinoscopy)

• Shawn Birchenough, MD

• Robert Cochran, MD

• R. Barry Hird MD, FACS

• Hugh James, MD

• Ari Kramer, MD

• Michael Orseck, MD

• Richard Reinhardt, MD

• J. Paul Ross, MD, FAC, FASMBS, Chief of Bariatric Surgery

• Ajai Srinivasan, MD

• Brian Thurston, MD, FACS

• Auburn Woods, MD

• Claude Woollen, MD

View our general surgery residents.