Thea P. Price, MD

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Get to know General and Acute Care Surgeon Dr. Thea P. Price, who serves patients in Illinois.

Dr. Price is a general and acute care surgeon, surgical intensivist, traumatologist, and wound care physician. She has particular clinical interests in acute and chronic wounds, minimally invasive surgery for complex biliary disorders, hernias, foregut disorders, and diverticulitis. 

With extensive experience with advanced wound care modalities and treatments, she is affiliated with Rush General Surgery, which is a part of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois. 

Rush General Surgery is a general surgery practice with four specialty teams. These include GI Surgery, Breast, Colon-Rectal, and Surgical Oncology. The teams of dedicated surgeons are supported by nurses, medical assistants, mid-level providers, and administrative support staff who all work together to assure a premier patient experience.

In affiliation with Rush Health, Dr. Price is also a part of the team of professionals at Wound Care Center at Rush Oak Park Hospital.

“I have three areas of expertise: acute care surgery, where I take care of all acute surgical care issues through the emergency department or in the hospital; surgical critical care, where I am the ICU [intensive care unit] surgeon who takes care of patients after long difficult operations; and I’m the Director of Wound Care, where I take care of patients who have wounds that have specialized or long-term needs,” she stated. 

Alongside her clinical role, she serves as an Assistant Professor within the Department of Surgery at Rush Medical College.

Her research interests include basic science where she runs an animal lab specializing in wounds, heterotopic ossification and biomineralization. She also has clinical research interests in intensive care protocols and practices to improve delivery of care, diet modulation to improve health and operative outcomes, wound care, as well as local and global health. 

Graduating with her medical degree from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences College of Medicine, Dr. Price went on to perform her residencies at the University of Colorado Hospitals at Aurora and Thomas Jefferson University Hospital at Philadelphia. She furthered her training with a burn fellowship at the University of Colorado Hospitals at Aurora, and a fellowship in acute care surgery and surgical critical care at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

With a focus on surgical procedures, Dr. Price is board-certified in surgery and surgical critical care by the American Board of Surgery (ABS). The ABS is an independent, non-profit organization located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, founded for the purpose of certifying surgeons who have met a defined standard of education, training, and knowledge.

General surgery is a surgical specialty that focuses on abdominal contents including the esophagus, stomach, small bowel, colon, liver, pancreas, gallbladder, appendix and bile ducts, and often the thyroid gland. A general surgeon performs a wide range of abdominal surgeries for many forms of intestinal and abdominal wall neoplasms, gallbladder disease, and gastric and pancreatic disease. They follow the patient through critical care and surgical recovery all the way to outpatient care. 

Acute care surgery is a developing field of surgery that has taken the principles of trauma care (organized teams, evidence-based processes and procedures, and continuous quality improvement) and applied them to patients with other urgent, time-sensitive surgical conditions. An acute care surgeon is typically the first surgeon to handle a patient who needs critical care. Their responsibilities are often to stabilize a patient and address the immediate emergency trauma such as severe burns, impact trauma or emergency abdominal issues.

On a more personal note, Dr. Price speaks both English and Filipino. She has completed global health missions in South Africa and Nepal.

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