What are considered the best FP residencies, and why?

Well, I just got finished interviewing at several and matching at one, so I'm more or less caught up on the general situation. IMO, the best 3 are probably Waco (McLennan County), John Peter Smith in Fort Worth, and Texas Tech in Lubbock, although I was impressed with all of the ones I visited.

Waco has an outstanding electronic medical record system; probably among the best in the country. It is a unique program that was basically started and still supported by local doctors, especially specialists, who saw the need for good primary care training in the area. It has excellent financial resources and all of the residents there seemed very happy.

JPS is one of the largest FP residencies in the country with 24/year. It is known for teaching procedures, and is an excellent choice for people planning to do very rural or 3rd world work with little support from other specialties. The FP residents run almost all of the services at the hospital, so they are well trained in all primary care fields. Word on the street is that it can be malignant and family-unfriendly; that was not at all the impression I got from the people there, several of whom I knew from undergraduate and I trust what they were saying.

TT-Lubbock's biggest advantage is variety; they see patients both at the public teaching hospital (UMC) and two nearby private hospitals. Therefore they get of the advantages of being at a large teaching institution (good consults, contact with other trainees) and of being the only residents in the hospital. Unlike at too many teaching institutions, the FP program there has lots of political power, so they don't have to put up with playing second fiddle all of the time. They see a wide variety of patient populations due to working at both public and private hospitals. UMC is an outstanding public hospital, and gets a considerable amount of middle and upper-class business as well as underserved populations. Also, the support structure for the residents in that program is very good.

Some other good choices are Amarillo (especially if you are interested in OB) and Baylor (if you are interested in academics). Baylor and the other Houston programs suffer from the disadvantage of being near the Texas Medical Center and not having much political pull in that arena; however the faculty is excellent and they have much better research opportunities than the smaller-town programs I've talked about.

The patient population at these programs are fairly important. Waco and JPS see primarily underserved populations; Amarillo has primarily middle-class white patients. Lubbock and Baylor see some of both because they visit both public and private hospitals.

PACtoDOC,

Yes, Scott & White has a good program also. I think that they have struggled in recent years with the loss of some of the leadership of the program (just my impression, no specific knowledge); however the new leadership is enthusiastic and capable and I think they will be upcoming in the future. They do have a good MR system at the hospital, but it is not fully integrated with their clinics the way the one at Waco is. Their three clinical sites were very good otherwise. They have had a few dry years in the match recently but this year was better and, as I said, I think they will continue to improve.

I don't know much about Conroe. I didn't interview there, although some people I know did so last year and loved it. Unfortunately they just had this big battle with the hospital in which they lost their funding, then regained it, then lost it again, or something like that. The last I heard was that the program would remain open, but now I think people may be a little hesitant to go there due to lack of stability.

What are considered the best FP residencies, and why?


Howdy,

I'm in my 3rd yr of school at UTMB.
Does anyone have any more updated info about TX FM residencies?

Thanks!

I've posted extensively about mine (Waco) and quite a bit about others I interviewed at.

Try a search and if you can't find it, let me know and I will give it a try.

(keywords: JPS, Christus Santa Rosa, Waco, Conroe).

Thanks SophieJane,

I found your reviews of Conroe, MH, San Antonio, and a certain anonymous program today.
The detail was greatly appreciated.

UTMB09FM

Thanks SophieJane,

I found your reviews of Conroe, MH, San Antonio, and a certain anonymous program today.
The detail was greatly appreciated.

UTMB09FM

You are quite welcome. Hopefully others who interviewed last fall will offer some more recent impressions.

Best of luck.

I'd like to add another program to this list: Memorial Family Medicine at Memorial Hermann Southwest in Houston.

If you're interested in an strong unopposed balanced FM program with an awesome group of diverse residents with strong backgrounds, in a private hospital located in a city with strong practice management, with reasonable call and work load, and want to expand beyond rural family medicine, consider Memorial Hermann Southwest. High volume (largest admitting services in the hospital), balanced inpatient-to-outpatient, EBM, EMR, balanced automony:supervision, run codes/intubate/chest tubes/lines, strong OB. High school & college sports team coverage. Go beyond general medicine on our 1-on-1 faculty:resident ratio specialist volunteer services available only at a tertiary care center. Super nice faculty including "our own" IM, Pedi, and OB/Gyn faculty who have years of experience in academia and private practice, both urban and rural. Manage complex patients as well as your "bread-and-butter" cases. Large alumni network over the program's long history with great reputation simplifies job hunt. Recent grads start their own practices, join groups, become hospitalists, become faculty, work ER, do rural/international medicine, work in community health/underserved, continue on with fellowships. Custom tailor your residency to your interests... the opportunities are there. 10 minute drive between crazy-war-zone-like hospital and the ultra-new FM clinic. Start moonlighting whenever you get your license. In-house urgent care moonlighting available with malpractice covered. Fun group of residents who go out. Mixed single & married residents, some pregnant, some with and without kids. Easy to find jobs for spouses in Houston. There's the Texas Medical Center downtown with Baylor and UT-Houston if you're thinking of couples matching. It's rare to find an unopposed program with all the spoils of a big friendly city with ridiculously cheap cost-of-living/real estate and no state/local income tax. Great schools close to the clinic. Sports, restaurants, music, concerts, theater. Your choice of posh urban, family-oriented suburban, quiet rural living within 15 minutes drive to work. Work smart, enjoy life.

(www.memorialfammed.org)

I've heard memorial fammed is good, but crazy hard. Is that really true? One of my med school friends works in the med center and said that one of the nurses there used to tell the residents not to have kids during the residency, and that seems to be opposite of the other things I've heard. What do you think? What makes the hospital crazy-war-zone-like? Are the residents a cohesive group? Another other info? Would you match there again?

I've also heard good things about Scott and white, but know less about it.

I've heard memorial fammed is good, but crazy hard. Is that really true? One of my med school friends works in the med center and said that one of the nurses there used to tell the residents not to have kids during the residency, and that seems to be opposite of the other things I've heard. What do you think? What makes the hospital crazy-war-zone-like? Are the residents a cohesive group? Another other info? Would you match there again?

I've also heard good things about Scott and white, but know less about it.

Hard? Well, I guess; but crazy hard? I don't know about that. I've only done one residency, so it's the only thing I know. For me, I think what's hard is taking responsibility for someone's life, translating book knowledge into patient care, and growing into the role of a doctor. I don't think it's any different than any other residency per se, but I think Memorial's a great program to go to if you want responsibility, aren't afraid to learn, and at the same time, don't ever want to feel like you were set up to fail. I think the program attracts people who like to roll up their sleeves, but I feel like the expectations are reasonable and humane. I mean, the opportunities available and the support to do the things that you are interested in are just great.

Pregnancy during residency at Memorial is a doable thing; but in general, residency isn't easy and pregnancy isn't easy. So with the 2 combined... It's hard to generalize when it comes to this issue because everyone's health and state of mind is different. I will say that with proper planning the program works with residents' schedules and residents work together well as a team to take care of each other. It's a big program so trading calls is not a big deal so long as you're being reasonable and pay good deeds forward. You can also take time off for paternity/maternity leave in the form of a pediatric elective, which is an option not available in other specialities. Plenty of residents and wives get pregnant and have children. It's no big deal from the program's standpoint.

The hospital is busy. It's not a war-zone in the sense that there's trauma going on all the time. (The 2 big trauma centers in Houston are Ben Taub and Hermann in the med center.) But it can get busy and the level of acuity of the patients are just higher compared to other community hospitals I've seen/rotated. Memorial Southwest is unique in that it has tertiary care resources in the community, has a high volume of patients, and was built was built in partnership with the FM residency from the beginning. The residents rely on the hospital; and the hospital relies on the residents. But it's very reasonable and balanced, I think. You have good days and bad days. High volume and low volume. Tough rotations and easy rotations.

The residents get along great. I've been pretty impressed with the recruiting process and how well people come together. There's always going to be different personalities but like anything in life, you learn to appreciate, respect, and celebrate similarities and differences.

I'd definitely match here again. There's so much the program and the city offers and so little time. I started my residency search on SDN by looking at geography and looking into the programs that people talk about. I checked out those "cowboy" or rural-type programs that people list on here. Some were good, others were over rated. Some of those programs listed over-emphasized some things, and under emphasized other things.

I thought about what my interests were. And I also looked at the AAFP Facts and studied the "Performance of XYZ" Statistics to see what people were doing out in the real world. And I also looked at the AAFP statistics about what people felt were important CME topics to guide what I should look for in a program. Those websites helped me shaped my opinion on what components of a program was important/unimportant. And everything else was just my own personal preferences.