Does anyone know about the Buffalo program?

[Duke76]

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Any info would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[freshity]

i noticed your other thread and thought that it was a joke. seriously.

did you interview at buffalo? maybe if you were more specific regarding your questions you'd get even more responses. 😳 my assumption is that you might (?) already have a little info if you interviewed there (or one would hope); and so what specifically could you use more info about? just a thought.

 

[Duke76]

i noticed your other thread and thought that it was a joke. seriously.

did you interview at buffalo? maybe if you were more specific regarding your questions you'd get even more responses. 😳 my assumption is that you might (?) already have a little info if you interviewed there (or one would hope); and so what specifically could you use more info about? just a thought.

I interviewed there in November. Just wanted to get others perspectives. Try not to be so arrogant if you can help it 🙂

 

[Gimlet]

I interviewed there in November. Just wanted to get others perspectives. Try not to be so arrogant if you can help it 🙂

Dude, I dont' think fre****y was being arrogant at all. People on this board might have experience with the programs you are asking about, but they aren't going to take the time to write out a long post about everything they know about the program. If you narrowed down what you are asking about to specific aspects of the programs, you would probably get more responses.

Edit: Wow, what's up with SDN blanking out fre s h i ty? That is some serious censorship! fre****y fre****y fre****y

 

[Duke76]

Dude, I dont' think fre****y was being arrogant at all. People on this board might have experience with the programs you are asking about, but they aren't going to take the time to write out a long post about everything they know about the program. If you narrowed down what you are asking about to specific aspects of the programs, you would probably get more responses.

Edit: Wow, what's up with SDN blanking out fre s h i ty? That is some serious censorship! fre****y fre****y fre****y

It was one of my first interviews. The interview was done in a hotel. So we didnt get to see to much of the hospitals. I met a few residents and they seemed pretty happy. I know they are big on research and they are one of the oldest programs. I would like to know if anyone has rotated through there. If so, do the residents seem happy and do they have time to read etc. Whats it like living in Buffalo. I hear that where the campus is located there is half the amount of snow fall than the rest of buffalo. Thanks.

 

[BuffaloMed]

Though I'm not a regular poster, I visit often and am thankful for the great
information people provide here so I thought I'd offer what I could in return.

I've been in Buffalo a good long time, finishing med school here and have
rotated through 3 different hospitals as part of the anesthesiology team.
I thought I could offer some insight.

Receives approximately 400 applications for what appears to be 12 spots
though I believe two are reserved for DO candidates and I believe (though
not positive) that Buffalo sometimes offers spots outside the match to FMG
candidates. The last few years they have offered 8 spots through the NRMP.
Spots through the match are categorical with the prelim year included.

Rotations at Buffalo after the prelim year are completed at approximately 6 locations:

Kaleida Health System:

Buffalo General Hospital
511 bed acute care medical center
Offers cardiac and orthopedic surgery, lithotripsy and urology, psychology,
gynecology/obstetrics, dialysis, gastroenterology, cardiac rehabilitation,
rehabilitation medicine, kidney and pancreas transplantation, neurology and
nuerosurgery

Women's and Children's Hospital of Buffalo
160 pediatric beds, 40 maternity rooms
Ranked among the top 20 pediatric hospitals in the nation by U.S. News and
World Report

Millard Fillmore Healthcare System
Millard Fillmore Gates Circle
189 bed acute care medical center
Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital
201 bed community hospital

Seperate from the Kaleida system are:

Erie County Medical Center
550 inpatient beds and 156 skilled nursing home beds
Ranked among the nation’s 100 top hospitals for cardiac and intensive care
Serves as the regional center for trauma, burn, and rehabilitation

Roswell Park Cancer Institute
101 acute care beds
Among America's oldest cancer centers founded in 1898
One of 39 centers in the US to hold the National Cancer Institute-conferred
designation of "comprehensive cancer center"

Veterans Administration Medical Center
233 total beds
Main referral center for cardiac surgery, cardiology and comprehensive
cancer care for Central and Western New York and Northern Pennsylvania

Hospital locations are mainly downtown. Where I currently live I can walk to BGH, RPCI, MFGC and Women and Childrens. ECMC is 5 to 7 minutes away and the VA is about 10 minutes by car (20 to 25 minutes coming home in rush hour traffic). The furthest hospital is MFSH which is about 25 minutes by car and about 35 minutes coming back during rush hour (however, I believe very few if any rotations are done there by most residents).

For the most part the hospitals are what you would expect. ECMC is the county hospital and recently became incorporated. A bit older with a generally poorer patient population but great cases overall. BGH does a wide range of adult surgery from vascular to ortho to transplant with standard ORs and average anesthesia equipment. MFGC is the stroke center. MFSH is a community facility in Amherst with a higher income population. Women's and childrens does a wide variety of pediatric cases with increasing amounts of OBGYN surgery. The VA is government run and seems to do things at a government pace. Facilities are average with complete electronic records. RPCI is a regional cancer center with a new main hospital built in 1998 (I think). Equipment is newer and they tend to have sick patients that require invasive monitoring.

Attendings are generally friendly though I'm told there are some that the residents try to avoid (which I'm sure is par for the course at most institutions). Teaching seems to be attending dependent in the OR and didactics are fairly good and improving. The department Chair, Dr. Lema is very student (and I'm led to believe resident) friendly, well known in the world of Anesthesiology and President-elect of the ASA.

CRNAs are present at most hospital sites and their friendliness with residents varies. I've actually worked in ORs with some of them during an entire day of cases and was never made to feel uncomfortable even after they found out I was applying to anesthesiology. Though, occasionally the residents and CRNAs can be less friendly with each other. For the most part they seem to be happy to do their job and get paid.

Residents on the whole seem to be happy and get along fairly well with each other. The general consensus I've gotten is that they feel they are well trained when they finish their residency to handle whatever cases come their way. Average work hours (I'm told) range in the low to high 60s per week depending on location. Residents seemed to feel they had lots of cases and a decent variety and that they had some time to read outside of work. This again seemed to depend on the rotation and hospital with some busy rotations allowing limited time for reading while others allowed ample time.

Call schedule appeared to be average to slightly above for a good-sized university program though I can't remember the specifics and this again seemed to fluctuate depending on the site.

Research is fairly prevelant and UB is 35th out of 130 residency programs in research funding. Areas include pediatrics, cardiology, pulmonology and pain medicine. Each resident "...is expected to conduct some type of scholarly work to present during their final year."

Compensation during the CA-1 year is listed as $39051 but may be increasing. CA-1 residents get a book stipend. CA-2 and CA-3 residents get a book stipend and money to attend conferences. Plus there was some mention of UB providing a large stipend to cover moving expenses during the clinical base year which I believe was between $600 and $1000 but I can't remember for sure. Check the program's website and/or Freida for other benefits.

The greater Buffalo area is home to a population of 954,000 with the city of buffalo being home to about 300,000 making it the second largest city in New York. The snow here is present but the largest amount (what you always hear about on CNN) tends to fall just south of the city in large "lake effect bands". This coupled with the army of snow plows makes getting around the city reasonable in winter though on rare occasions the city can get shut down by a storm for a day. The cost of living is just about the cheapest you'll find anywhere in the country with the median home price being about $98,000.

By car from Buffalo to:
Toronto 2 hours
Cleveland 3.5 hours
Pittsburgh 3.5 hours
Philadelphia 6 hours
NYC 6 hours
Boston 7 hours

Lots of cheap flights to major cities out of the Buffalo international airport.

Overall, Buffalo is a good program and I don't think it gets quite the respect it deserves. The city has a lot of positives that overcome the snow and if you like winter sports you'll be home here. It's no Harvard but you could do a lot worse.

Hope that helps. Fingers cramping...

Statistics, blah, blah, blah from (in no particular order):
http://www.bestplaces.net
http://www.ci.buffalo.ny.us
http://www.roswellpark.org
http://www.ecmc.edu
http://bgh.kaleidahealth.org
http://www.chob.edu
http://www1.va.gov/visns/visn02/buffalo.html
http://gates.kaleidahealth.org
http://suburban.kaleidahealth.org
http://www.smbs.buffalo.edu/anest
http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/2997.html
http://www.asahq.org
http://www.scutwork.com

Disclaimer: The above represents my own personal views with no affiliation with anyone mentioned in my post. I welcome anyone else with similar or contrasting experience to offer their opinions and experience here. Plus I make no claims that you will love/hate/rank Anesthesiology at Buffalo.

Luck to all. Three weeks to D-day.

 

[EW1779]

take this with a grain of salt, because it is hearsay.

i have a friend who is a 4th year at buffalo who is going into anesthesia. she didn't even apply to the program there, because in her opinion, it's a weak program. she actually told me that with the exception of the PD, the program is not too good.

any specific questions, PM me, i'll be happy to try and answer.

 

[BuffaloMed]

I'm not sure why you don't believe what I posted above. I certainly would be
interested in hearing the experiences of your "friend" who must be in my class
if she is a 4th-year at UB. I hope this isn't just sour grapes over my pointing
out your inconsistencies here:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=257059

I can respect your opinion if you think Buffalo has a weak program but I'd like
to hear about what experience you have with it rather than making a sweeping
statement like, "My friend said it sux so it must sux."

Honestly, I have nothing to gain by saying good things about the program. I
probably won't be matching here in March but that's strictly a geographical
issue based on where my family and family-to-be lives. Otherwise I'd
definitely consider staying.

Perhaps you've rotated through the program yourself and so could speak
from a position of authority on the issue. If so, then by all means, please
Share your experience.

-D

 

[Duke76]

Though I'm not a regular poster, I visit often and am thankful for the great
information people provide here so I thought I'd offer what I could in return.

I've been in Buffalo a good long time, finishing med school here and have
rotated through 3 different hospitals as part of the anesthesiology team.
I thought I could offer some insight.

Receives approximately 400 applications for what appears to be 12 spots
though I believe two are reserved for DO candidates and I believe (though
not positive) that Buffalo sometimes offers spots outside the match to FMG
candidates. The last few years they have offered 8 spots through the NRMP.
Spots through the match are categorical with the prelim year included.

Rotations at Buffalo after the prelim year are completed at approximately 6 locations:

Kaleida Health System:

Buffalo General Hospital
511 bed acute care medical center
Offers cardiac and orthopedic surgery, lithotripsy and urology, psychology,
gynecology/obstetrics, dialysis, gastroenterology, cardiac rehabilitation,
rehabilitation medicine, kidney and pancreas transplantation, neurology and
nuerosurgery

Women's and Children's Hospital of Buffalo
160 pediatric beds, 40 maternity rooms
Ranked among the top 20 pediatric hospitals in the nation by U.S. News and
World Report

Millard Fillmore Healthcare System
Millard Fillmore Gates Circle
189 bed acute care medical center
Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital
201 bed community hospital

Seperate from the Kaleida system are:

Erie County Medical Center
550 inpatient beds and 156 skilled nursing home beds
Ranked among the nation’s 100 top hospitals for cardiac and intensive care
Serves as the regional center for trauma, burn, and rehabilitation

Roswell Park Cancer Institute
101 acute care beds
Among America's oldest cancer centers founded in 1898
One of 39 centers in the US to hold the National Cancer Institute-conferred
designation of "comprehensive cancer center"

Veterans Administration Medical Center
233 total beds
Main referral center for cardiac surgery, cardiology and comprehensive
cancer care for Central and Western New York and Northern Pennsylvania

Hospital locations are mainly downtown. Where I currently live I can walk to BGH, RPCI, MFGC and Women and Childrens. ECMC is 5 to 7 minutes away and the VA is about 10 minutes by car (20 to 25 minutes coming home in rush hour traffic). The furthest hospital is MFSH which is about 25 minutes by car and about 35 minutes coming back during rush hour (however, I believe very few if any rotations are done there by most residents).

For the most part the hospitals are what you would expect. ECMC is the county hospital and recently became incorporated. A bit older with a generally poorer patient population but great cases overall. BGH does a wide range of adult surgery from vascular to ortho to transplant with standard ORs and average anesthesia equipment. MFGC is the stroke center. MFSH is a community facility in Amherst with a higher income population. Women's and childrens does a wide variety of pediatric cases with increasing amounts of OBGYN surgery. The VA is government run and seems to do things at a government pace. Facilities are average with complete electronic records. RPCI is a regional cancer center with a new main hospital built in 1998 (I think). Equipment is newer and they tend to have sick patients that require invasive monitoring.

Attendings are generally friendly though I'm told there are some that the residents try to avoid (which I'm sure is par for the course at most institutions). Teaching seems to be attending dependent in the OR and didactics are fairly good and improving. The department Chair, Dr. Lema is very student (and I'm led to believe resident) friendly, well known in the world of Anesthesiology and President-elect of the ASA.

CRNAs are present at most hospital sites and their friendliness with residents varies. I've actually worked in ORs with some of them during an entire day of cases and was never made to feel uncomfortable even after they found out I was applying to anesthesiology. Though, occasionally the residents and CRNAs can be less friendly with each other. For the most part they seem to be happy to do their job and get paid.

Residents on the whole seem to be happy and get along fairly well with each other. The general consensus I've gotten is that they feel they are well trained when they finish their residency to handle whatever cases come their way. Average work hours (I'm told) range in the low to high 60s per week depending on location. Residents seemed to feel they had lots of cases and a decent variety and that they had some time to read outside of work. This again seemed to depend on the rotation and hospital with some busy rotations allowing limited time for reading while others allowed ample time.

Call schedule appeared to be average to slightly above for a good-sized university program though I can't remember the specifics and this again seemed to fluctuate depending on the site.

Research is fairly prevelant and UB is 35th out of 130 residency programs in research funding. Areas include pediatrics, cardiology, pulmonology and pain medicine. Each resident "...is expected to conduct some type of scholarly work to present during their final year."

Compensation during the CA-1 year is listed as $39051 but may be increasing. CA-1 residents get a book stipend. CA-2 and CA-3 residents get a book stipend and money to attend conferences. Plus there was some mention of UB providing a large stipend to cover moving expenses during the clinical base year which I believe was between $600 and $1000 but I can't remember for sure. Check the program's website and/or Freida for other benefits.

The greater Buffalo area is home to a population of 954,000 with the city of buffalo being home to about 300,000 making it the second largest city in New York. The snow here is present but the largest amount (what you always hear about on CNN) tends to fall just south of the city in large "lake effect bands". This coupled with the army of snow plows makes getting around the city reasonable in winter though on rare occasions the city can get shut down by a storm for a day. The cost of living is just about the cheapest you'll find anywhere in the country with the median home price being about $98,000.

By car from Buffalo to:
Toronto 2 hours
Cleveland 3.5 hours
Pittsburgh 3.5 hours
Philadelphia 6 hours
NYC 6 hours
Boston 7 hours

Lots of cheap flights to major cities out of the Buffalo international airport.

Overall, Buffalo is a good program and I don't think it gets quite the respect it deserves. The city has a lot of positives that overcome the snow and if you like winter sports you'll be home here. It's no Harvard but you could do a lot worse.

Hope that helps. Fingers cramping...

Statistics, blah, blah, blah from (in no particular order):
http://www.bestplaces.net
http://www.ci.buffalo.ny.us
http://www.roswellpark.org
http://www.ecmc.edu
http://bgh.kaleidahealth.org
http://www.chob.edu
http://www1.va.gov/visns/visn02/buffalo.html
http://gates.kaleidahealth.org
http://suburban.kaleidahealth.org
http://www.smbs.buffalo.edu/anest
http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/2997.html
http://www.asahq.org
http://www.scutwork.com

Disclaimer: The above represents my own personal views with no affiliation with anyone mentioned in my post. I welcome anyone else with similar or contrasting experience to offer their opinions and experience here. Plus I make no claims that you will love/hate/rank Anesthesiology at Buffalo.

Luck to all. Three weeks to D-day.

Thank you very much for all you information.

 

[BuffaloMed]

Happy to share what I can. Feel free to PM me if you (or anyone else) has
more questions. And as an aside for people who fear the weather in Buffalo,
here's a quick comparison of metropolitan areas:

CLIMATE-------NYC---Buffalo---Syracuse---Cleveland----Boston---Chicago
Rainfall (in.)----46.5----40.8-------40.9-------39.3--------45.4-----37.2
Snowfall (in.)---21.6----85.4------107.5------45.9---------43.6-----34.5
Avg. July High--87.1----80.2-------80.8-------81.6--------81.2-----84.3
Avg. Jan. Low--25.1----16.2-------13.1-------18.0--------18.9-----14.6

From http://www.bestplaces.net

So yeah, Buffalo gets more snow than many places but not the most. You
just need to invest in a good shovel if you come here.

😉 -D