CHO vs UCSF

[infopedia]

Haven't seen a substantive posting on these N. Cali programs in the last couple of years so thought I would resurrect, and I'm getting down to the wire here.

CHO seems closer to the community hospital side of the spectrum - high volume, busy ED, great community/advocacy exposure; but still has a fair amount of complex cases, fair number of tertiary beds, associated research site, etc. Residents are pretty cohesive, and overall very happy with their program.

UCSF of course has an awesome reputation, and my day their showed they do have awesome didactics, and are much closer the tertiary care side of the spectrum. Residents were impressive and happy, and I'm not much intimidated by the multi-site.

But, looking over the stats on their respective websites', it's hard to get a sense of how many admits UCSF is getting, and on the ER/Urgent care side, it also looks like they have lower numbers. Their admits are probably a bit more complicated, so lower numbers are to be expected, but I know from med school that a lot is to be learned in the trenches of a busy ED. Anybody else have any insight on the volume side of these 2 programs? Any other thoughts on SF vs CHO?

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[fiestatrio99]

I had a similar impression in terms of the volume at both places. CHO definitely seems to be a learn-by-volume/doing type of program, and the residents I spoke with all said that is how they learn best. It seemed like at CHO there are more gen peds patients on the teams, so there is more turnover. Some residents said the teaching is very practical/ hands-on v. the more academic approach at some other programs. CHO is the pediatric Level 1 trauma center for the Bay Area, so they said that in terms of ED/Trauma experience, they see the most of the Bay Area programs.

At UCSF it seems that on the Moffitt months you will have more complex patients (and some gen peds), and you would get more of your general peds exposure at the other sites. I am not sure about the volume there, but it sounded like the Kaiser and CPMC wards are smaller in size.

I thought that both were great programs where you would work hard and come out well prepared to do whatever you want in the end--fellowship, academics, private practice, advocacy. I guess in the end it comes down to what will work the best for your learning--single v. multisite program, academic v. community, etc.

I'd be curious if anyone else has any thoughts too.