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Okay, wow, a lot of you interested in SoCal prelim programs! That's great. The good news is there are a lot to choose from. I'll break them up by specialty.
I sent my ERAS in early August. I started receiveing interviews in October. Most occured in December and January. I applied to a total of 15 programs all located in SoCAL.
MOST IMPORTANT, DON'T KID YOURSELF AND BLOW OFF THIS APPLICATION. LIKE EVERY OTHER RESIDENCY IN SOCAL, THE GOOD PRELIM SPOTS ARE COMPETITIVE HERE. YOU'RE NOT JUST COMPETING WITH OTHER OPHTHO APPLICANTS, BUT YOU'RE NOW THROWN INTO THE MIX WITH DERM, RADIOLOGY AND ANESTHESIA.
TY
The only SoCal (greater LA area) TY program is at Los Angeles County/Harbor UCLA hospital. They offer something like 15 spots. From what I rememeber, a pretty good deal. 2 months of wards (q4), one unit, one surgery month (you can do ENT), an ambulatory month, the rest is elective time (you pick from a list [ophtho, derm, rads, etc]). Their website is very comprehensive. The ward and unit months are tough, but we're only talking 3 months out of the year. I would have ranked this program highly if I lived closer. Harbor is in the South Bay, many people live in Redondo or Manhattan beach. They go by board scores and grades only. The interview is optional.
This only goes for their Transitional year program. DO NOT DO IM PRELIM HERE. Sorry "ceremony" if you're reading this.
IM
1. West LA VA (I was not worthy enough to receive an interview at this place). No O/N call, 1 month of night float. It is "the place" to do a prelim year.
2. Huntington Memorial Hospital (community hospital in Pasadena). I believe one of our moderators was there. I'll let him fill in the rest of the details. Great program. Not a hard call schedule. My #2 pick.
3. Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center/UCLA. This is where I am. Also very good program. 2.5 months of elective time. You can do anything, anywhere in the world during this time. I am going to do an ophtho rotation in Hawaii during February while my wife is out there for 2 months doing a required OB/GYN rotation. She wanted me to be her "intern" for a month. I have yet to break the news to her that I will be in the eye clinic rather than L&D 😉 . 2 O/N x-cover calls when not on a ward service. 3-4 admitting calls/month when on regular medicine service. Interns turn their pagers off at 3AM on all O/N calls and are "not to turn it back on" until 7AM for a "protected sleep time." The bad news, you stay until 4PM post call. But you're not on call that often. 5 weeks of ICU (no O/N ICU call). 5 weeks of CCU (no O/N CCU call). 4 x 5 weeks of medicine wards. 5 weeks of ER. 4 weeks vacation. 1 week "independent study" i.e., vacation! There are no golden weekends while you are on wards or on a unit block, but always one weekend day off a week (if not on call on sat) and if you're not out of hospital by noon on the other weekend day (when not on call), something is wrong with you! All interns cap at 7 patients TOTAL. All admitting teams cap at 7 admits/night. SEND IN YOUR ERAS EARLY. THEY WILL GET BACK TO YOU RE: INTERVIEW STATUS IN EARLY OCTOBER AND THE LAST DATE THEY INTERVIEW IS IN MIDDLE NOVEMBER. NB: There is a lot of serious talk of making this program like West LA VA and having no O/N admitting call, with an extensive 5 week night float block. Sucks when you are night float, but the rest of the year would be even better than it is now.
4. Cedars Sinai also very popular, was not worthy enough to receive an interview.
5. Olive View/San Fernando UCLA. Very good program. Was my #3 pick. Very comparable to Kaiser. Know many people that have gone through the program. Nurse practioners round with all medicine ward teams and follow/up on x-rays and pending lab results. Makes the pain less! Nice place to spend a year.
51/2. White Memorial Hospital. Not a bad deal, not a great deal. You get an extra $1000 if you take step III by december of your intern year. You also get bonuses for signing all of your charts on time every week. 7th Day Adventist Hospital...no caffeine to be had. My interview was a strange experience. the whole hospital has a weird vibe...and it wasn't just me that thought so.
6. UCLA proper IM prelim. Very hard program. Definitely not cush.
7. Los Angeles COunty/USC prelim IM. stay FAR away from this program. There is always a poor ophtho prelim who didn't know any better that gets suckered into this program every year. 10 months of q4 call....enough said!
GSURG
In my opinion, the only GSurg prelims that are worth considering are Huntington Memorial and Kaiser Los Angeles Medical Center. Harder than their IM counterparts. Easier than LA County IM, though. Worth applying to. Both average q5-6 call. not much happens. you get to do all the appys you want and get a fair amount of OR time. Not too bad for GSurg.
Hope this helps. Sorry for the mass post, but a lot of you had questions. Hope this answers most of them.
I sent my ERAS in early August. I started receiveing interviews in October. Most occured in December and January. I applied to a total of 15 programs all located in SoCAL.
MOST IMPORTANT, DON'T KID YOURSELF AND BLOW OFF THIS APPLICATION. LIKE EVERY OTHER RESIDENCY IN SOCAL, THE GOOD PRELIM SPOTS ARE COMPETITIVE HERE. YOU'RE NOT JUST COMPETING WITH OTHER OPHTHO APPLICANTS, BUT YOU'RE NOW THROWN INTO THE MIX WITH DERM, RADIOLOGY AND ANESTHESIA.
TY
The only SoCal (greater LA area) TY program is at Los Angeles County/Harbor UCLA hospital. They offer something like 15 spots. From what I rememeber, a pretty good deal. 2 months of wards (q4), one unit, one surgery month (you can do ENT), an ambulatory month, the rest is elective time (you pick from a list [ophtho, derm, rads, etc]). Their website is very comprehensive. The ward and unit months are tough, but we're only talking 3 months out of the year. I would have ranked this program highly if I lived closer. Harbor is in the South Bay, many people live in Redondo or Manhattan beach. They go by board scores and grades only. The interview is optional.
This only goes for their Transitional year program. DO NOT DO IM PRELIM HERE. Sorry "ceremony" if you're reading this.
IM
1. West LA VA (I was not worthy enough to receive an interview at this place). No O/N call, 1 month of night float. It is "the place" to do a prelim year.
2. Huntington Memorial Hospital (community hospital in Pasadena). I believe one of our moderators was there. I'll let him fill in the rest of the details. Great program. Not a hard call schedule. My #2 pick.
3. Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center/UCLA. This is where I am. Also very good program. 2.5 months of elective time. You can do anything, anywhere in the world during this time. I am going to do an ophtho rotation in Hawaii during February while my wife is out there for 2 months doing a required OB/GYN rotation. She wanted me to be her "intern" for a month. I have yet to break the news to her that I will be in the eye clinic rather than L&D 😉 . 2 O/N x-cover calls when not on a ward service. 3-4 admitting calls/month when on regular medicine service. Interns turn their pagers off at 3AM on all O/N calls and are "not to turn it back on" until 7AM for a "protected sleep time." The bad news, you stay until 4PM post call. But you're not on call that often. 5 weeks of ICU (no O/N ICU call). 5 weeks of CCU (no O/N CCU call). 4 x 5 weeks of medicine wards. 5 weeks of ER. 4 weeks vacation. 1 week "independent study" i.e., vacation! There are no golden weekends while you are on wards or on a unit block, but always one weekend day off a week (if not on call on sat) and if you're not out of hospital by noon on the other weekend day (when not on call), something is wrong with you! All interns cap at 7 patients TOTAL. All admitting teams cap at 7 admits/night. SEND IN YOUR ERAS EARLY. THEY WILL GET BACK TO YOU RE: INTERVIEW STATUS IN EARLY OCTOBER AND THE LAST DATE THEY INTERVIEW IS IN MIDDLE NOVEMBER. NB: There is a lot of serious talk of making this program like West LA VA and having no O/N admitting call, with an extensive 5 week night float block. Sucks when you are night float, but the rest of the year would be even better than it is now.
4. Cedars Sinai also very popular, was not worthy enough to receive an interview.
5. Olive View/San Fernando UCLA. Very good program. Was my #3 pick. Very comparable to Kaiser. Know many people that have gone through the program. Nurse practioners round with all medicine ward teams and follow/up on x-rays and pending lab results. Makes the pain less! Nice place to spend a year.
51/2. White Memorial Hospital. Not a bad deal, not a great deal. You get an extra $1000 if you take step III by december of your intern year. You also get bonuses for signing all of your charts on time every week. 7th Day Adventist Hospital...no caffeine to be had. My interview was a strange experience. the whole hospital has a weird vibe...and it wasn't just me that thought so.
6. UCLA proper IM prelim. Very hard program. Definitely not cush.
7. Los Angeles COunty/USC prelim IM. stay FAR away from this program. There is always a poor ophtho prelim who didn't know any better that gets suckered into this program every year. 10 months of q4 call....enough said!
GSURG
In my opinion, the only GSurg prelims that are worth considering are Huntington Memorial and Kaiser Los Angeles Medical Center. Harder than their IM counterparts. Easier than LA County IM, though. Worth applying to. Both average q5-6 call. not much happens. you get to do all the appys you want and get a fair amount of OR time. Not too bad for GSurg.
Hope this helps. Sorry for the mass post, but a lot of you had questions. Hope this answers most of them.
