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As a current LSU/Ochsner resident, I thought I could shed some accurate light on the program. I wanted a residency program that would get me into a good fellowship but was not malignant, and I believe that sums up LSU New Orleans.To start, here is a list of the fellowship match for last year’s graduates.
Cornea - Tufts
Oculoplastics - Duke
Retina - University of Alabama
Pediatrics - University of Wisconsin
Glaucoma - University of Wisconsin (this resident is from Wisconsin and did not want to go anywhere else).
Glaucoma - Tulane
2 residents went into general ophthalmology, including the resident who had the highest OKAP score. They felt well prepared for practice and did not want to specialize.
Our attendings are very approachable and friendly. In speaking with friends at programs in more high-intensity areas like New York, my experience has been very different from theirs in that they often feel overworked and under-appreciated. . Although I have no desire to stay in Louisiana long-term, I constantly find myself thinking that I would want to stay here for fellowship because of the great work environment.
We are an excellent clinical program and, unfortunately for our patient population, there is considerable ophthalmologic pathology. Traditionally, we have not been research-heavy, but this is changing now with our new chair(wo)man Dr. Weiss, former chair of the FDA Ophthalmic Devices Panel and recent chair of American Academy of Ophthalmology Basic and Clinical Sciences Course.
I would like to address some previous posts on student doctor.
1. “The state of Louisiana is having issues with its health care…budget cuts…negative consequences for its graduate medical training.”
These cuts have been in effect for over a year now. They have not affected ophthalmology at all. However they have resulted in rural small community hospitals providing fewer services to the poor. This results in more of the poor traveling great distances to New Orleans and some of the surrounding hospitals. Jindal is trying to center health care, particularly subspecialty health care, in New Orleans as a way of cutting costs. To accommodate the new influx he is currently building a 1.2 billion dollar hospital as well a brand new VA. Both will be state of the art and operational by early 2015.
2. “Back when I was a resident a few years ago LSU was a terrible program with very low surgical numbers. Tulane is def the better of the new Orleans programs.”
- Our fellowship match speaks for itself. A terrible program would not be able to send its residents to such strong fellowship positions.
- With respect to surgical numbers…while we currently do not have excessively high surgical numbers, we meet ACGME requirements and are on par with any other large city such as DC or New York. Our average cataracts are around 115 to 120. Not amazing, but certainly not terrible and near the national average. That number should increase to about 160 for the incoming class. We are also cutting our residency program from 8 to 6 residents to get higher surgical numbers. We required 8 residents per year before Katrina, but after almost a quarter of the city population left we have not required the same number of residents.
- Is Tulane a better program? Hard to say. I am as close to being unbiased as possible as I have as many friends from Tulane Ophtho as LSU Ophtho .After talking with both groups of residents our step scores and class ranks are essentially the same. Both programs have one or two people with Steps in the low 250s but most of us are right at the national average of 238. For the most part our fellowship match is comparable with some variation from year to year. Most residents currently at Tulane and LSU interviewed at both programs, and ranked one higher than the other based on personal preference based on interactions with faculty, interview experience, etc. Both sets of residents were equally competitive.
3. “I believe a retina fellowship at LSU was cut because of the inability to fund one.”
- Before the healthcare cuts were put into effect there were talks about cutting the retina fellowship down by one fellow. However, after seeing that the cuts have not affected Ophthalmology, LSU continued to take its normal number of fellows – a total of 3 per year (2 one year, 1 the following year, 2 again, and so on). Nothing has changed. In addition, Ochsner has its own retina fellowship which takes one every other year.
4. “The travel issue”
- Currently residents are in either Lafayette or Baton Rouge 3 months out of the year. Lafayette is 2 hours away and Baton Rouge is a 1.5 hours drive. We also go to Houma, which is only an hour drive away. If you are used to LA traffic then that is a normal commute to work. We are currently traveling because Charity Hospital was shut down after Katrina. However a new $1.2 billion hospital is currently being built that will be staffed by both LSU and Tulane. Travel should not be an issue after 2015. However, I sincerely hope they keep the Houma rotation, as the staff and attendings are fantastic and it is a great place to practice. In the unlikely event that we are still traveling in 2 years, residents are able to come home on the weekends and call is light so its very manageable. While on my away rotations I really only spent 4 nights away and 3 nights in New Orleans – not too bad. Tulane residents also travel - they do 3-4 months away as a first and third year. They do not do away rotations as a second year, however their away sites are 3-4 hours away in much smaller towns and they are not allowed to come back on the weekends while they are on call. I would like to stress that most likely neither Tulane nor LSU will have away sites once the new hospital is built. On the off chance there are still away sites significantly reduced time will be spent at them.
LSU/Oschner is a great place to train. We have diverse institutions. Oschner, where we spend 4 months of our first year, is primarily wealthy patients. Call at Ochsner is moderately busy. ILH is a rough inner city hospital. The trauma and call is intense and you will often go in multiple times a night. Sleep is minimal while on ILH. You will get your ruptured globes, eyelid lacerations, and gun shot wounds to the eye - enjoy! This is only 3.5 months of the year so you have the rest of the year to recuperate. At ILH you learn all the required skills to handle trauma. I’m glad we don’t spend the entire year here – otherwise, there would be little time to study. The away rotations (Lafayette, Baton Rouge, and Houma) offer a lot of autonomy, great pathology, and light call. We typically start at 8:30 AM and end by 4 PM. That means for 4 months out of the year I have ample time to study. I feel I am much further ahead in BCSC reading than my friends at other programs because of this. I can also get up early before clinic to read.
To summarize:
· Strong clinical program
· Good fellowship match
· Diverse patient populations
· Plenty of time to study for OKAPs
· Healthcare funding cuts in Louisiana have not affected ophthalmology
· Amount of time at away sites will be reduced by 2015.
· 2 brand new hospitals opening in 2015 totaling close to 2 billion dollars
· Approachable attendings
