Jennifer L Hartwell, MD

Dr. Jennifer Hartwell is a double board-certified surgeon who specializes in trauma, surgical critical care, emergency general surgery and general surgery, collectively known as the specialty of acute care surgery (ACS).

Dr. Hartwell is a member of the acute care surgery team at The University of Kansas Health System in Kansas City. The surgeons of the ACS team work with students, residents, fellows, nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) to provide comprehensive trauma and surgical care to patients who may arrive to the hospital through the emergency department or are met by our comprehensive surgical care team for elective general surgery.

As an acute care surgeon, Dr. Hartwell cares for a vast array of surgical diseases, including gallbladder problems, appendicitis, bowel obstruction, abdominal and groin hernias, soft tissue injury or infection, as well as injury to the liver, spleen, intestines, ribs and lungs. Patients who require admission to the surgical intensive care unit (SICU) remain under the care of acute care surgeons who are also board-certified in surgical critical care. In the SICU, acute care surgeons manage the ventilator (breathing machine) as well as medications to support blood pressure, antibiotics, pain and sedation. Acute care surgeons perform bedside procedures such as central line placement (large IVs), bronchoscopy (to clear the lungs), tracheostomy (surgically placed breathing tube) and gastric tubes (feeding tubes).

Acute care surgeons help coordinate the care of injured patients and may consult colleagues from other departments such as orthopedic surgery, neurosurgery, plastic surgery, vascular surgery or interventional radiology, depending on the type and severity of illness or injury. Acute care surgeons provide care for patients from hospital admission through hospital discharge and routinely see patients in the clinic after a hospitalization.

Dr. Hartwell is an associate professor of surgery at the University of Kansas Medical Center, where she enjoys teaching residents, students and fellows who learn and work with her in the hospital setting. She is active in multiple national professional organizations, where she serves on committees and the leadership board. She has a special interest in surgical nutrition as well as provider well-being. She has given dozens of lectures across the nation in support of these passions and has published over 30 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters on ACS topics.

She earned her undergraduate degree from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and graduated from medical school from Wright State University in Dayton. She completed a residency in general surgery at the University of Illinois at Chicago and completed her training in trauma and critical care at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center in Memphis.

In her spare time, she loves to read, write, cook, travel, exercise and spend time with her husband and 4 children.