View Full Version : Update on Vegas program


Gregg
10-29-2005, 12:29 PM
I know there are several threads out there about EM in Vegas, but they're not on the first 2 pages and the search is still disabled. So, I'll start a new thread.
Vegas is now funded for new residency positions and UMC is planning on using the money for EM and OB/GYN. EM is new, OB/GYN is an expansion of an existing program. According to the article in today's Review Journal, accredidation could be received by February and the program up in June. :thumbup: Article attached.

Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: Residency programs get boost

$1.25 million going to OB/GYN, emergency medicine efforts at UMC

By K.C. HOWARD
REVIEW-JOURNAL

The University of Nevada School of Medicine is due to receive more than a million dollars to supplement its residency programs in Southern Nevada, officials announced Friday.

University Medical Center, where the medical school's Southern Nevada residents are based, will receive $1.25 million from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid, also known as CMS, for 25 additional residents.
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"It also means we now have the money to fund our emergency medicine residency with UMC and expand our OB/GYN residency. So I'm just as excited as I can possibly be," said Dr. Jim Lenhart, vice dean of the medical school.

Upon completion of medical school, physicians train for three years as residents at hospitals before they're on their own.

Studies have shown that residents tend to practice where they do their residencies, which officials said was another reason the money was so crucial to the state.

Lenhart said the medical school's residency programs have been unable to expand since Congress passed the Balanced Budget Act in 1997, which capped the residency dollars institutions received.

The federal agency currently funds 146 state medical school residents, 12 of whom are OB/GYNS. It reallocated funds to increase residents in a small number of urban teaching hospitals across the nation.

UMC and the medical school then applied for the residents with the help of Nevada's congressional delegation.

There is no emergency medical residency in Nevada, and hospitals import such physicians from other states to fill emergency and trauma departments.

"Emergency physicians, we do everything. We're the safety net of the community. Emergency physicians are the people that are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week," said Dr. Dale Carrison, chairman of UMC's emergency department.

Beginning the emergency medicine residency program is contingent upon approval from a residency review commission, he said.

Members of the commission will inspect UMC on Monday and decide whether to accredit the program in February.

If approved, Lenhart said he hoped the program would begin in June.

The review commission, part of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, didn't qualify UMC for an emergency medicine residency program last year, citing a lack of office space and funding for the academic component of the program.

Those deficiencies have been corrected, Carrison said.

He said he believes the UMC program could export its emergency physicians to states such as South Dakota, North Dakota and Montana that don't have emergency physician residency programs.

"But Nevada comes first. I love this state," he said.

Also chairman of the Nevada Homeland Security Commission, Carrison said the grant will help prepare the state for emergencies.

"Having adequate nurses and physicians to be available in a time of crisis is extremely important," he said. "That's why it's so important we're geared up to have more education opportunities."

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2005/Oct-29-Sat-2005/news/4057137.html

bla_3x
10-29-2005, 05:04 PM
This is Great. I had called and spoke with the education coordinator for the EM dept and she was very nice and informative. She was confident that they should have their first res class this June of 06. Of course thats if all goes well...but by 2007, when I would like to apply, there should for sure be a program there. It would be great to be able to do residency back home near friends and family, espeically with a little one on the way

CS_22
10-29-2005, 08:14 PM
This is Great. I had called and spoke with the education coordinator for the EM dept and she was very nice and informative. She was confident that they should have their first res class this June of 06. Of course thats if all goes well...but by 2007, when I would like to apply, there should for sure be a program there. It would be great to be able to do residency back home near friends and family, espeically with a little one on the way


Hey, is there any contact info you could pass along. I'd like to find out how they're gonna fill their first class of residents. Some family just moved to Vegas, so it'd be nice to end up out there.

Thanks,
CS

bla_3x
10-29-2005, 09:53 PM
Hey, is there any contact info you could pass along. I'd like to find out how they're gonna fill their first class of residents. Some family just moved to Vegas, so it'd be nice to end up out there.

Thanks,
CS

I will try and find that nymber.
I got it by way of calling the med ed dept, and getting told to call about three different people.