This year marks University Surgical Associates’ (USA) 50th anniversary. Founded in 1976 by Dr. Phillip Burns as a comprehensive two-physician surgical practice, USA has grown over the past five decades into one of the largest and leading multi-specialty surgical groups in the region, powered by over 200 employees, including more than 30 surgeons and additional healthcare providers.

“For the past 50 years, quality care and teaching have been at the forefront of everything we do,” said Dr. Katie Duffy, CEO at University Surgical Associates. “Ultimately, our patients are the focus every single day.”

Today, USA serves patients at seven convenient locations across the greater Chattanooga area, and its providers enjoy facility privileges at Erlanger Health System, Parkridge Medical Center, CommonSpirit (formerly CHI Memorial), and Vitruvian Bradley Medical Center (Cleveland). Providing a wide range of surgical services, including emergency and elective general surgery for adult and pediatric patients, endocrine surgery, hepatobiliary surgery, vascular surgery, kidney transplant, and surgical oncology to diagnose and treat cancers of the breast, colon, rectum, liver, pancreas, USA continues to operate daily from its mission “to enrich quality of life for our community through excellent surgical care and education.”

Surgical Innovation in Chattanooga

Over the past 50 years, USA has been at the forefront of surgical innovation, bringing several “surgical firsts” to the Chattanooga region. This includes (among others) performing the first kidney transplant and endovascular procedures, as well as recruiting the first pediatric, trauma, colorectal, vascular, and pancreatic surgeons to this community.

“In healthcare, you have to embrace change because so much evolves every single day,” said Dr. Benjamin Dart, general/trauma surgeon and professor of surgery and Chair of the Department of Surgery at UTHSC. “At USA, we have a willingness to make good decisions, change our practice, and adapt without losing sight of what we’re really all about, which is quality care and education.”

In addition to providing excellent patient care, the USA team invests heavily in education and research pursuits. Through collaboration with the University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Medicine (UTHSC), USA facilitates one of the nation’s premier residency
programs that graduates up to six chief general surgery residents, along with fellows in critical care, vascular, and colorectal surgery, each year.
UTHSC/USA surgical faculty are also the region’s primary investigators in clinical research studies in all areas of clinical services offered. UTHSC/USA surgical faculty have cultivated knowledge and implemented improvements to ensure the most recent advances in surgical care are provided to patients across the region.

“If you start with the patient, everything else takes care of itself,” said Dr. Heath Giles, general/endocrine surgeon and professor of surgery, Department of Surgery, and General Surgery Residency Program Director at UTHSC. “At USA, one of the things that we pride ourselves on is the incredible level of expertise our team of surgeons commands. When you have good people who want to do the right thing and put the patient first, like we have for the last 50 years, then it really doesn’t matter how the landscape of medicine changes.”