Blackcat,
Yes, they are saying it should change soon, but they have been saying that for years. The real answer is that it probably won't change until Dr. Copus retires (according to the attendings and residents I talked with). And when it does change, the Madigan residents may get shafted. The people at UW want to start a residency of their own separate from Madigan's, but are waiting for Dr. Copus to retire. If UW has a residency, how will that affect the Harborview and UW rotations for the Madigan residents? One of the strengths of the program is that the diversity comes from great rotations at all three institutions (inner city and trauma at HB, tertiary care univ setting at UW and bread and butter at Madigan). I don't know the answer to that (but do know that lots of politics will be involved) and it may be a couple of years before that happens. But, if the change is soon, it will be a chaotic situation for residents at Madigan no matter what change is made. Don't get me wrong, I like Madigan's program and they are very high on my list but the Harborview situation is a political nightmare even though you do get good training there (all this info is from the residents I talked with and I talked with 5 or 6 about this situation). Now, for the VA Hospital. That patient population has a large proportion of non-acute patients who have chronic complaints and come in all the time as well as a large proportion of drunks. The pathology you would get at the VA doesn't at all compare to the pathology the residents get with the combined training at where they rotate now. If they substitute a bunch of resident rotations at the VA for the ones at Harborview and UW, that will significantly weaken their program.
See you, Kickbackdude