CCF Anes, take a look

[offthefence]

http://www.clevescene.com/issues/2003-06-04/news/feature_print.html

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[Aykroyd]

This article was published in 2003, and I'm not sure much has changed over the last 2 years. I am a CCF anesthesia intern and have personally seen the influence Dr. Estafanous has had over the division. During my SICU months, he had a personal friend in the unit. He would come to the unit and at a drop of dime all the attendings were at his heals. Dr. E would dictate exactly how HE wanted his friends care managed. No matter how much the CC attendings disagreed with DR. E (not to his face); they catered to his every whim.

Money yields power. The CCF Division of Anesthesiology is very wealthy. From what I understand the division has been able to donate $10-12 million yearly to the clinic, largely due to the way Dr. E ran the place.

Good news is the Dr. E has retired and in JULY 2005 we have a new division chair, Michael F. Roizen, MD.,

Taken from: http://www.realage.com/company_info/Roizen_bio.aspx

"Dr. Roizen is past chairman of a Food and Drug Administration advisory committee and a former editor for six medical journals. He has published more than 155 peer-reviewed scientific papers, 100 textbook chapters, 30 editorials, and 4 medical books, including a medical Best-seller. He has also received 12 U.S. patents and several foreign patents.

After 9 years on the faculty at the University of California, San Francisco, he started and served as medical director of the Chicago Program for Executive Health. He also chaired the top-10-rated department of Anesthesia and Critical Care at the University of Chicago. He then became dean of the School of Medicine and vice president for Biomedical Sciences at SUNY Upstate. After serving as CEO of the Biotechnology Research Corporation of Central New York, he accepted a position as chairman of the Division of Anesthesiology, Critical Care Medicine, and Comprehensive Pain Management at the Cleveland Clinic."

To be honest some things need to change here at the clinic and I have confidence that most of them will. Dr. Roizen is very pro-resident and should be great for the program.

 

[UTSouthwestern]

I think there is/was a similar situation with the OB/GYN department in San Antonio. Wealthy Egyptian docs with a lot of clout.

 

[chicamedica]

Goin' straight off my list.

 

[redstorm]

I was a fellow there last year, although i never had any problems with fawzy.. I did fell as though there was just something not right with that place. ALthough the training was good; there certainly was a strongly pro egyptian feeling in that there were tons of residents from egypt. not that there is anything wrong with that.. also the politics in that place is ****ed up.. (nothing to do with egyptian).. however..

my 2 cents..

I wouldnt do a residency there. although the training is good.. Its too big..

 

[redstorm]

I have to say example of GOOD Journalism.. And Im not beign sarcastic.. Things need to be out in the open so people know whats going on

 

[MTGas2B]

I was a fellow there last year, although i never had any problems with fawzy.. I did fell as though there was just something not right with that place. ALthough the training was good; there certainly was a strongly pro egyptian feeling in that there were tons of residents from egypt. not that there is anything wrong with that.. also the politics in that place is ****ed up.. (nothing to do with egyptian).. however..

my 2 cents..

I wouldnt do a residency there. although the training is good.. Its too big..

Just out of curiosity how was your fellowship experience?

 

[ThinkFast007]

"For medical students who want to learn or practice in the United States, but who speak English as a second language, anesthesiology is an attractive field. As one nurse says, "If your patient is asleep under anesthesia in the operating room, you obviously don't have to talk to them. It's a specialty they can get into with a certain degree of comfort, and their likelihood of being successful is pretty good."

This was taken from the article. Does that mean those of us that were born and raised in the good ol' USA can't do anesthesiology? Especially at the CC oh shucks...

Ok all fun aside, it is indeed a tragedy that these women had to suffer through such circumstances. I'm surprised that this chairman was still kept as chairman after not one, not two, not three, but almost 4 people in the dept had sexual harassment charges...including himself. I guess this goes to show...it's all about the benjies....Apparently the guy brought in tons of $$$$$$$ and it made all the difference in the world.

At any rate, I dont think we should look down on this program now, or it's residents who some day will hopefully will be our colleagues. I am hopeful the 'bad apples' are out of the basket now.

 

[Aykroyd]

I know from the outside this might seem scary. Even the least bit of controversy can cast the largest shadow (not to minimize the allegations). The truth is that CCF is really a great place to train. Until I read this article I had never heard of these sexual harassment cases, or even felt like there was anything majorly wrong with the program. There are those minor things that are common among most programs i.e. not enough time to read, need more breaks, out at a decent hour etc. but nothing of any more significance.
I feel the environment is very comfortable as do my female colleagues. Yes, there is a large Egyptian contingency here. For the most part I have the utmost respect for them (both men and women). They are very bright and with a rare exception, all were attendings or had done an anesthesia fellowship before starting their residencies. Camaraderie among the resident is excellent. The OR experience is outstanding. However, I can see how there might be some misconceptions especially when you read an article like this. Honestly, our Division chair has been absent from the training program for years. I just talked to a CA-3 who has never met the guy. As I mentioned, CCF is the DIVISION of anesthesiology, not department. We have 10 departments including:

• Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology
• Neuro Anesthesiology
• General Anesthesiology
• Pediactric Anesthisology
• Critical Care
• Pain Management
• Regional Practice
• Education
• Center for Anesthesiology Research
• Clinical Engineering and Information Services

Dr. Tetzlaff (PD) and the others involved with education are actually pretty great. I am very happy to have matched here (ranked this #1) and I know my classmates are as well. Other than didactics your training is only as good as the cases you see and very few programs are able to offer the likes of what we see here. So at least take a look.

 

[Justin4563]

I disagree.. you can find those cases at any big place.. You dont need to be at cleveland clinic. If you have talent it will show. cleveland clinic will not give you talent

 

[VentdependenT]

I disagree.. you can find those cases at any big place.. You dont need to be at cleveland clinic. If you have talent it will show. cleveland clinic will not give you talent

Only American Idol can give us talent folks.

 

[Aykroyd]

I disagree.. you can find those cases at any big place.. You dont need to be at cleveland clinic. If you have talent it will show. cleveland clinic will not give you talent

I agree that there are a lot of very talented individuals going into anesthesia these days. However my point was the clinic offers an amazing variety of difficult cases, which only adds to the training. Sure you don't need to come to the clinic to become a competent anesthesiologist. But you can't argue with the fact that it is the cases we see that makes CCF one of the nations top hospitals.

 

[Justin4563]

The cleveland clinic is the cleveland clinic because of the enormous resources it has.. not because the doctors are necessarily better.. I mean for cardiac surgery they have a physician assistant sometimes 2 and a surgical fellow scrub in for every single cabg.. you have a cardiac anesthesia fellow and attending on every case.. then you go up to the cardiac ICU 55 beds.. and you have a seperate ICU TEAm just rounding on those patients all day long plus a slew of nurses resp techs.. etc.. If you have enough money to pay all these people to take care of the patients.. yes you will be the best.. but the actual operation.. sewing grafts and stuff are probably not that much better.. BUt it is certainly impressive the amount of people and resources they have available to them. they are all snobs however..

 

[Kwijibo]

You sound like a big time hater...

 

[Justin4563]

im not a big time hater... how can you say that..

hurt my feelings..