Mesa General Hospital-Rotation

[Liljoe2002]

This message is for people who have rotated through this hospital and can give me some insight to their experience. I know that students from Kirksville can rotate there as well as AZCOM. How was your experience?

UHSCOM-2002

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[yeahright]

i hear that if you're not from arizona, the attendings make u do rectals on all the indigent patients. especially if you're from colorado....

 

[UHS03]

I am from AZ and familiar with the hospital. It is not a large hospital, and there are many other hospitals in the area, so I believe their volume is fairly low comparatively. Last I heard, this was the only site left open by UHS in AZ..is that right? They used to send students to Maricopa County hospital which would have been a great experience! There you would see everything and learn a ton! As far as Mesa general goes, routine stuff will come through there but anything unusual will probably end up at one of the other area hospitals. I am a first year so I haven't actually rotated there and I don't plan to.

[This message has been edited by UHS03 (edited 03-01-2000).]

 

[UHS03]

By the way, I guess that UHS also sends students to Tucson General hospital in AZ. I wouldn't go there either because Tucson is not a large city and all the interesting stuff goes to the University Medical Center at the University of AZ medical school. It's a shame that UHS closed down a great rotation site like Maricopa county...I sure am glad to dish out 6% more tuition next year

 

[yeahright]

uhs03 is only partially informed and only b/c s/he is from az--tho' neglects to tell us from where--yuma, perhaps?
Tucson is a medium sized city with a sprawling metro area of approx. 1 million and is eminently livable. fact is, you can't beat the lifestyle with 360 days of sun, miminal traffic and pollution, and lots of outdoor activites. tucson general hospital has been sold and rebought, but is still answering their phones. it's merit as a rotation site is questionable anyways and even scarier with the possibility of closing. True, Univ Az med center and Tucson Med center are the only level 1 trauma centers, but there are many other hospitals and clinics where u could do "everything" and reach the medically underserved pop'ns. For instance, Kino Community Hosp is the county owned facility mandated by ordinance to treat the indigent. St. Mary's and St. Joseph's have connection to the KC, MO area by being owned and run by the sisters of carondelet, who have at least 3 hospitals here. why uhs doesn't have connections with them, i don't know. both are excellent non-profit facilities. UMC at UofAz is the largest of all and the only teaching hosp there, but good luck ever getting anything with them, unless it's with Dr. Weil's integrative medicine fellowship program as the token DO.
as for the huge, traffic congested, very hot (110+ for weeks in summer), but posh phoenix area, mesa general has been uniformly panned in written student reviews. however, current 3rd yr students do somehow manage to rotate to both maricopa county (great for psych!) and st. luke's and report excellent experiences. i don't know where AZCOM is sending their first rotation class next year. perhaps the same hosps that uhs currently use, but peoria is on the other side of phoenix from mesa. in uhs rotation site lottery, all the AZ postitions (only 4) were selected as one site. chances are, people matching there will probably rotate to tucson and mesa as well as other hosps. it's truly a shame that uhs has so few sites in the west. why don't other osteo schools share rotations else where as in philly and florida?

[This message has been edited by yeahright (edited 03-03-2000).]

[This message has been edited by yeahright (edited 03-03-2000).]

 

[UHS03]

Yeah right-

I am from Phoenix (spent almost my whole life there) and I lived in Tucson for 2 years. I am very familiar with the hospitals and which ones are the busiest. Tucson is large population-wise, but between Tucson Medical Center and the University of AZ medical center being in Tucson (which is not that large a city geographically) I don't think Tucson General would opffer a very good learning experience, relatively speaking. I also know physicians at nearly every hospital in the Phoenix area (including Mesa General) and none of these hospitals are great teaching hospitals aside from Maricopa County.

 

[UHS03]

Also, it is noble to want to treat the underserved, but I think that is best left to physicians who are out of training and in practice. These small rural sights do not offer much in terms of learning opportunities as compared to a larger site like Maricopa county or UofA medical center.