Jefferson’s top emergency medicine doctor is stepping down as longtime chair

Theodore Christopher is stepping down as the chair of Jefferson Health’s department of emergency medicine after more than two decades at the helm.

Although he’ll no longer be chair, effective Oct. 1, Christopher will continue to serve as a faculty member at the Sidney Kimmel Medical College and a practicing physician on Jefferson’s medical staff. A national search for Christopher’s replacement is underway, a Jefferson spokesperson said last week.

“Dr. Christopher’s hard work and dedication to Jefferson has been and will continue to be invaluable to the lives of his students and faculty members and staff,” the SKMC Dean’s Office wrote in an email to faculty last month.

The announcement came nearly a year after Jefferson’s leadership investigated and disciplined Christopher for failing to follow hospital policy by leaving work without calling for backup to cover his shift.

At the time, Christopher was supposed to be supervising a first-year resident who was only four months into her training as an emergency medicine doctor following medical school. Another doctor learned of Christopher’s absence and scrambled to find a replacement. Other staff immediately stepped up to fill any void, The Inquirer reported earlier this year.

A Jefferson spokesperson had said Christopher left work that day due to an emergency gastrointestinal issue; no patients suffered harm. Christopher apologized to his staff during a subsequent meeting, saying he made a mistake when he did not contact the on-call emergency medicine doctor before leaving for his procedure, according to doctors at the meeting.

Jefferson spokesperson Deana Gamble said Christopher’s decision to relinquish the top job “is a planned semi-retirement” and has nothing to do with the disciplinary incident or The Inquirer story, published Jan. 30.

Christopher declined a request for an interview for this story.

» READ MORE: READ MORE: Jefferson's top emergency medicine doctor was under anesthesia when he was supposed to be supervising a hospital unit

Christopher began his career at Jefferson in 1982 as a member of its inaugural class of emergency medicine residents. Over the next 40 years, he worked his way up, holding various leadership roles within Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health. He established the department of emergency medicine in 2002, where he has remained its first and only chair.

Under his leadership, Jefferson’s emergency medicine staff grew from six to 60 doctors who work at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Center City and Jefferson Methodist Hospital in South Philadelphia, and cover shifts at Jefferson’s urgent-care centers.

The residency program expanded from six to 17 residents annually. Also, the academic department in emergency medicine became ranked among the top 20 nationwide in research funding received from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), according to Jefferson.

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Christopher has won national awards in science and emergency medicine research and gained recognition as chair of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, an Illinois-based nonprofit dedicated to improving care for critically ill or injured patients. He advocated on behalf of fellow doctors as a past president of the Pennsylvania Medical Society and president of the state’s chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians.

His “impact extends beyond our institution,” said an internal email to staff from Jefferson leadership announcing his decision to step down as department chair.

Jefferson has formed a search committee for Christopher’s replacement. Jefferson picked Stavropoula Tjoumakaris, a neurosurgery professor and a cerebrovascular neurosurgeon, to head the committee.