University of Kansas Medical Center

KU has 2 VA hospitals, a shared childrens hospital (with UMKC), and other clinical locations. They had combined grand rounds once a month with UMKC.

Positives:
- Pedi faculty seemed good
- Wet lab is very accessible
- Friendly "family" atmosphere
- New clinic

Negatives:
- Friday afternoon lectures
- Have to drive around alot to different locations
- No basic science/OKAP course
- Call schedule was split 70/30 with 1st/2nd years... they said it was going to become more like 50/50, but that wasn't a guarantee. It was the only program I saw that had 1st years taking that much more call. 1st years took more weekend calls too.

Undecided:
- Surgical numbers weren't bad, 120-150 cataracts, 10-15 vitrectomies, 5-10 glaucoma cases, 40-50 plastics cases (all according to residents)

Overall: I didn't get that great of an impression from KU. They were more of a community-based program, seemingly. I think I was comparing them to UMKC, which I felt gave me a better overall impression. Definitely not a very "academic" program from what I saw.

I had no connections to Kansas prior to interview, and ended up being really surprised by how much I liked the program and the city. The residents all seemed really tight, they had a lot of inside jokes and funny stories about good times at conferences and stuff. The faculty were fun to interview with, and the chair was awesome and had us all over to his house after interviews. The city has like no traffic which was nice because there is about a 10 minute drive between sites. Eye clinic has a dedicated OR upstairs. KC is bigger than I realized, has a lot to offer. Primary call q6 for 2 years.

Any more recent input about this program?