The Mercy Health St. Vincent Medical Center Orthopedic Surgery Residency Program is located in the heart of Toledo, Ohio. The program was founded in 1982 by Dr. Frank E. Jaeblon, who completed his orthopedic surgery residency at Parkview Hospital in Toledo, Ohio, a program in which no prior candidate had ever graduated. He became the first Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine to be Board Certified in Orthopedic Surgery in the United States.
Dr. Jaeblon initially established the residency program with one resident per class every other year. The program has grown to a complement of three per class, totaling 15 residents. Dr. Richard M. Miller took over as program director in 2015 and led the program to receive initial ACGME accreditation in 2019. Dr. Miller will be succeeded as program director by Dr. Seth Phillips in July 2025.
The residency program’s primary institution is Mercy Health St. Vincent Medical Center, with residents also conducting their training at four other suburban hospitals. St. Vincent Medical Center is a Level 1 trauma center that operates five Life Flight helicopters and whose Emergency Department sees over 100,000 visits annually. The campus is also home to Nationwide Children’s Hospital – Toledo. Residents complete offsite rotations in Oncology at James Cancer Center in Columbus, Pediatrics at Dayton Children’s Hospital, and Hand and Upper Extremity at MetroHealth in Cleveland.
The core of the Orthopedic Surgery Residency Program is built around a rigorous approach to didactics and early hands-on surgical exposure. Daily morning lectures provide a structured foundation, contributing to a 100% first-time board passage rate. Additionally, residents have achieved 97th and 100th percentile performances on the annual Orthopedic In-Training Examination (OITE) over the last two years, including a historical average above the 90th percentile.
The program has produced three graduates who have won the Bob Green Award, an honor given annually by the American Osteopathic Academy of Orthopedics to the individual with the highest combined score on the written and oral certification examinations for the prior year.
Upon graduation from the program residents are prepared for practicing General Orthopedics, though many pursue fellowships in subspecialties such as Adult Joint Reconstruction, Foot & Ankle, Hand, Pediatrics, Spine, Sports Medicine, Trauma, and Shoulder and Elbow; and match at prestigious institutions such as NYU Langone, Johns Hopkins, and the Florida Orthopaedic Institute.
A total of 74 residents have graduated from the residency program since its inception. The program takes immense pride in retaining its alumni as seven members of the core faculty completed their training here, including Program Director Dr. Richard M. Miller and Associate Program Director Dr. Seth Phillips.
Mercy faculty and residents are actively involved in innovative orthopedic research, having been selected for presentations at prestigious national conferences held by American Osteopathic Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AOAO), American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgery (AAOS), American Orthopaedic Association (AOA), Mid-America Orthopaedic Association (MAOA), and Arthroscopy Association of North America (AANA) in the last year.
The implementation of a research fellowship position in 2021 has been a tremendous success for the program. The position boasts a 100% match rate into an Orthopedic Surgery Residency position that begins immediately following the fellowship. The research fellows have played a crucial role in advancing the program’s academic output by facilitating and contributing to 37 publications in peer-reviewed journals since 2022, along with numerous grants, awards, posters, and podium presentations.
For further information and details regarding our program, please visit our website at St. Vincent Orthopedic Surgery Residency Program.
