CCF vs. UH vs. Metro Anesthesia Residency

[peachd]

I'd love to hear people's candid opinions regarding the 3 anesthesiology residency programs in Cleveland. This type of thread has been posted before, but not for several years, and I'd like to get the most up-to-date info I can. Topics of interest for me include caseloads, amount of independence, each hospital's MD/CRNA dynamic, # hours worked, and quality of teaching.

Thank you so much to anyone who's willing to reply.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Doctor4Life1769]

CCF rules all even though i didnt match there and im kinda bitter about it but yeah i loved my time at CCF ...

 

[narcusprince]

CCF rules all even though i didnt match there and im kinda bitter about it but yeah i loved my time at CCF ...

Hey Doc
I think I remember you nice guy from the South(we had lots of conversations in the TT building). We liked you here too, this year was a very competitive match. Trust me you will be good wherever you go, you had the Eye of the Tiger. Hopefully we will see you back for fellowship. Work hard study hard come July 1 ish gets real. See ya at the ASA.

 

[amyl]

hey doc, wanted to second NPs sentiments... would have loved to have you but you will do awesome anyways.... anesthesia is a huge responsibility but also can be fun (when it goes well
cant speak about the other programs cause i didn't apply -- if i had to come to cleveland it was only gonna be for ccf... but heres my answers about us:
caseloads -- awesome, nothing you won't see or do or be able to handle.
amount of independence -- staff dependent. you will likely feel like there is not enough and too much at some point in your residency here but all in all we have enough autonomy
# hours worked -- with vacation and stuff averaged in the program says we work around 55 hours per week... but if you count it like you should its more like low 60s
quality of teaching -- staff dependent but definitely headed in a positive direction.

 

[PMPMD]

CA-3 at UH.

Case load -
Excellent, we get all our numbers usually by end of CA-2 year. We do everything at our one institution except trauma, which we do as an away rotation. We have great acuity in all the subspecialty areas. No fellows to take cases away from you.

Amount of independence -
You are 1:1 as a CA-1 the first 2 months. Your independence increases with your seniority. By CA-3 year, most attendings let you do your own thing. We also have "pretending" days where we supervise 2-3 rooms with CRNAs (with an attending overseeing us of course) to get a feel for the "real world."

Each hospital's MD/CRNA dynamic -
we use AAs/CRNAs to get us out for conference, and to ease the resident work load.

# hours worked -
Also in the 60s. Less as a CA-3 for sure, with 3 calls/month. I do lots of moonlighting so I work more than the minimum. We have lots of moonlighting opportunities for those who are interested.

Quality of teaching -
EXCELLENT. We've revamped our didactics in the past few years. The intraop teaching is excellent, too. Being a medium sized program (12 residents/class,) the attendings know all of us well, and the camaraderie is great.
We have a whole month of TEE, where you are only responsible for doing the echo, while another resident runs the case. Also a month of blocks.


I'm doing a CCM fellowship at CCF next year, so I certainly respect that instituion. I think the 2 programs are very different in size and feel, so figure out what works for you. For me, I liked the medium size of UH, the resident and faculty camaraderie, and the program directors/chairman are great guys.

 

[DAN325]

I would like to share my interview experience at Case/UH. I really love the program when I was there. They evaluate all applicants wholly as a person, not just by numbers. Every faculty and resident I met was very easy to talk to, straight forward, and very helpful. Their chair was a very nice, down to earth guy who took extra time out to talk to me about anything I wanted to talk about. It is a very solid and balance program with great training in all anesthesiology sub-specialties. They offer fellowships in CCM, OB, Pain, and Peds. Case/UH graduates also obtain fellowships at big names elsewhere. They were very friendly and easy to contact post interview by answering my calls and emails promptly. Everyone was very honest, provided great advice, and genuinely wanted me to be where I would best fit in. I had many reasons to go to Ohio and was struggling to decide between UH and another program as my #1 all the way to the deadline. I ended up placing Case second for personal reasons and matched to my # 1 instead. UH is definitely a great program with a lot to offer in my opinion and I would have been just as happy to match there.

 

[Doctor4Life1769]

Hey NP and Amyl,

Thank you, means a lot to hear that... Definitely appreciate the both of you taking time out and talking, answering questions and stuff... really did make me feel at home. I am considering a fellowship and will give CCF another look when the time comes... hopefully I'll see you both again at some point in the future.

 

[Chris1013]

I would like to echo what Dan said about the UH/Case program. I was highly impressed with the program. I think that UH may get over shadowed by the big hospital down the street but I interviewed at both and UH seem to have happier residents and more congenial faculty. They were the only program that took the time constraints of interviewing students into consideration. Their interview dinners were held Friday night at the same hotel where the applicants stayed - which was excellent. Transportation to and from the hotel on Saturday morning was arranged. After interviews were done, around noon, we were free to leave. I really appreciated this and I know a lot of other applicants thought this was great. Their case load seems rich and the fact that there are no fellows was a huge plus. That means that residents are first in line for all the cases. The hospital is beautiful, they have all the best anesthesia equipment. If it hadn't been for geography this would have been my hands down number one choice but my wife thought otherwise - ha. I interviewed at a lot of top notch programs for the match this year and think that UH/Case is truly one of the best training programs. I encourage all that are entering the match next year to apply and go check it out.

 

[peachd]

I really appreciate all of your responses. Thanks.

 

[mismatched]

2nding and 3rding Dan and Chris. Just to be closer to family, I ranked Case #2 but they were my favorite program overall. Dr. Nearman, the chair, is amazing and I would have loved to work for him. If you interview with him, you'll find him incredibly easy to talk to. The critical care experience was top notch and every single resident I spoke to seemed to be genuinely happy to have matched there. Good mix of male/female residents, and it seemed like a very family friendly place.