University of Arizona/UPHK Graduate Med Education Consortium Residency Reviews

I see they are recruiting for all Emergency Medicine classes and I am considering making the jump as a resident to get back out West.


Would appreciate thoughts from applicants of all levels about their experience interviewing, seeing the facilities, meeting the people, etcetera.

I interviewed there. In my opinion it's going to be a great program. Although, it's technically a "new" residency, for all intents and purposes it's not. The UPHK program will be affiliated with the existing U of A program. Both programs share the same faculty with a discrete set of designated core faculty at each institution. Both residency programs will attend the same didactic lectures.

Currently U of A residents rotate at Pima which will be the primary site of the UPHK residency. Additionally, UPHK residents will rotate at the U of A hospitals for some rotations. So you can see that there is a significant amount of overlap between the programs. I doubt the new program will have as many "growing pains" as a typical new program given the involvement of faculty from an already successful residency program. Accordingly the new residency has been afforded the maximum years of accreditation by the ACGME.

The major facility, Pima, is a typical county ER. Nothing fancy and a bit run down. On the plus side, it seems well resourced; and there is a new ER currently being built which will be up in a year. Additionally there is 24 hour radiology and psychiatry coverage. I think they said visits at PIMA were around 40K a year with typical resident coverage being two which is more than adequate patient volume. PIMA is not a level one trauma center and the trauma rotation is at the U of A. To me, that's a plus since it means more ER resident involvement in stabilization of the traumas that do come through the door.

The folks who run the program are a good bunch. I was impressed with their enthusiasm and energy. There are also some heavy hitter names associated with the program research wise. There's been a lot of work done down there with respect to sepsis and heat injuries in particular. Dinner the night before was hosted by the program coordinator in her home which I think was an excellent sign. She seems very hard working and called me late one night in response to an email. NEVER overlook the importance of the program coordinator. Programs may succeed or fail on the strengths or weaknesses of said person.

And what I saw from the shuttle on the way from the airport was pretty cool. I can't speak for any other months, but November weather in Tucson was unbelievable! Much better than what you're probably used to at West Point. Hope this is helpful.

I just graduated from the U of A program and worked at UPHK about 25% of my shifts. If you have specific questions pm me. I would be happy to discuss both programs with you.

As you can imagine I know the attendings at both programs extremely well.

Overview: Brand-spanking new 3 year program located in Tucson, Arizona. Although the program is new on paper, the faculty are all from the University of Arizona with many, many years of experience with training residents. They are looking for 6 residents per year.

Residents: None from the new program (of course), but a resident from the UA program showed up to the pre-interview dinner, which was held at the home of one of the attendings. The resident was friendly and easy to talk to. Other attendees of the dinner were the PD and the program coordinator. Dinner was delicious (home-cooked food).

Interview Day: Started at 7:30am with light breakfast and coffee followed by a quick talk given by the Medical Director at UPH Kino. There were 3 interview sessions each with two faculty per session. All of them seemed very eager and excited about the new program. All were very easy to talk to the and interviews were low-stress with no questions out of left field. I really liked the PD and the associate PD. After the interviews, we were given a tour of the hospital/ED by one of the attendings. The day was over by 1:00pm.

Faculty: As I mentioned above, all were easy-going and friendly. Their faculty have expertise in many areas such as Toxicology, EMS, Critical Care. And they also are faculty at UA, so they've had prior experience running a residency program.

Curriculum: 3 year program. Nothing really specific about the curriculum was talked about (i.e. specific sites, blocks, etc), however I think it's going to be similar to the UA curriculum, with more of your ED months spent at Kino hospital. It seems like you'll get the bulk of your ICU time during 2nd year. There are 2 selective months total - one in 2nd year, one in 3rd year. Trauma is probably at UA Medical Center as Kino hospital is not a certified trauma center (this is my assumption... I did not ask this question specifically). Graduated responsibility with you taking more of a teaching and supervisory role. Fellowship here include Sports Medicine, Research, Clinical Scientist Program, and Medical Informatics. Also, Kino serves as an EMS base station so you'll probably get a lot of EMS exposure here as well.

Didactics are the standard 5 hours per week. I didn't ask them anything about their plans for conferences. If others out there have any more info regarding this, please share them.

Facilities: The ED at Kino hospital had a county feel to it. Medium sized with about 40 beds with an annual census of about 43,000. From what I remember the only other residency program there is surgery, so you'll probably be responsible for the majority of your patient's care (which I think is a good thing). I think the hospital is being developed as a safety-net hospital, so that coupled with its location in south Tucson will give this program a "county" feel, with the patients largely being indigent and underserved. Also, being close to the Mexican border you'll likely see a lot of border medicine (recent immigrants, Spanish-only patients, environmental exposure patients, etc.).

We did not tour UA Medical Center, but this will be more your tertiary care/academic center experience. If any of you who interviewed at UA or are residents at UA, please feel free to talk about the UA Medical Center.

Location: Tucson, Arizona. I interviewed here in January, and the weather was PERFECT... 70s, sunny, not a cloud in the sky. Per the faculty, it gets really hot and unbearable only 2 months out of the year. Tucson is a medium-sized city with a small-town feel. I didn't have much time to explore, but to me there wasn't much exciting about it. However, if you're big on outdoor activities (hiking, climbing, golfing), then this place will probably be the perfect place for you. Winter activities such as skiing and snowboarding are also within driving distance. Cost of living I was told is very reasonable.

opb's final thoughts: Much like my review about University Hospitals, the big thing you'll probably have to think about is going to a brand-new program. However, the faculty at this program are faculty from UA, so that opens up those networks in terms of job-finding after residency. That being said, you will be the first class at this program at this hospital. This is great if you're looking for a place where you'll have an impact on shaping the program, but bad in that there's no one ahead of you who can let you know what to expect. Another thing to think about is the differences between this program and the UA program. While the curricula may end up being similar to each other, the different sites may give you contrasting patient populations and experiences - Kino hospital giving you a "county" feel, UA Med Center a more "academic/tertiary" environment. Finally, Tucson is not a big city so you won't find the "big-city" amenities, but the weather will be great for the majority of the year and the low cost of living means your $$ will go a long way.

1) General: 3 year program based in Tucson that is part of University of Arizona. UoA has two campuses and two residency programs in Tucson. Both have quite a lot of overlap but have unique aspects as well. 57 ED faculty rotate through both campuses splitting their time equally for the most part. South campus residents spend ~70% of time at south campus ED and 30% at main campus ED, this is opposite for UoA main campus residency program. Confusing I know! South campus is based at more of a community/county hospital which has some interesting attributes that can be viewed as positive or negative depending on what you’re searching for. Heavy Hispanic population here, as well as other minority groups, prison population, and basically the lower socioeconomic groups of the city being it is the “county” hospital. Since it is not the main teaching hospital in town, UoA Main campus 7 miles north is, there are less residency programs and residents in house. This allows/forces Ed residents to do many more procedures, lines, reductions, intubations, etc. The residents seemed excited about this aspect and say they fulfill their requirements early on in 2nd year because of crazy amount of exposure. Definitely is a positive in my eyes, if you like “getting your hands wet” early on. Residents and faculty said there is no competition between two programs in ton, in fact most residents were friends with both groups etc. Graduating residents were getting great jobs/fellowships and did not feel as they were looked upon differently. Program is technically new on paper but basically just extension from main campus with unique twists so they don’t have to start from scratch.

2) Curriculum: Medical Spanish course taught throughout residency which seems pretty sweet and helpful no matter where you want to practice in life. Trauma, ICU, OB/GYN months all taught at main campus which is academic center in town. Also as stated above, 30% of ED shifts are at main campus as well. Although most residents said they preferred South campus because they get to “run the show” and do all procedures. Weekly didactics seems ok, nothing special but residents seemed to enjoy them. Rural medicine and international medicine rotations required, 1 month each which is pretty cool and unique. Lots of options and everyone seemed to like them.

3) Pre-interview dinner: At faculty members house which was a nice change from normal routine, ~5 faculty members there including PD and program coordinator plus multiple spouses. Only 1 resident showed up which was odd, although meet many more on interview day so less concerning after the fact. Have to say I enjoyed meeting faculty the night before, especially the PD who I got to chat with for a long time during the evening. Really enjoyed the change, sort of helped the program stand out. Obviously all were great to talk to and easy going, no serious questions even with faculty; they wanted to relax just as much as applicants.

4) Interview: Started at 8am with orientation from PD, chef resident, and ED department chair each for 20 minutes or so. Interviews were 15 minutes each with PD and two faculty members for total of three. Very laid back again, just conversational. PD is great and seemed to be very enthusiastic about program. Tour of campus and lunch with residents concluded the day. Got a good feel from residents during the day and made up for poor showing at pre-interview dinner. Seemed to be happy and excited about program.

5) Summary: Program is new but based of long history of main campus program so less growing pains likely present. Unique aspects of program are a strong positive for me, but may turn some others off. Just depends on what you’re looking for. PD is very into listening to residents and adapting as needed which is nice. Also, faculty are same for both campuses and are top notch with some pretty big names. Tucson is a great outdoor city with lots to do and very mellow people; would be a great place to live. The city itself doesn’t have as much money as some other places and is slightly run down in certain areas but still seemed to have enough “city” activities if you want those. Overall good program with some rather unique and interesting aspects that set it apart from most residency programs.