Need input..USC VS. UCLA/Oliveview

[USMan22]

Hello all. Please help shed some light what should be my #1...

This is my thought
USC: Busy, Busy, Busy, More autonomy, EM runs the hospital, Lots of Trauma, US program is strong, great reputation, will have new hospital in a couple of years/ BUT almost a homogenous patient population: East LA poor county patients and Trauma

UCLA/Oliveview: 2 hospital system. Oliveview gives you the county pateints and UCLA gives you the wierd Dz and transplant patients that you never see/ Low in Trauma (I'm not that into Trauma to begin with, I think it just bogs your ER down)/ But more hand holding, driving from Hospital to hospital can be a pain, US program has just been kickstarted, but for some reason...it wants me to rank it #1

What to do??? Please help!

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[FlemishGiant]

Hello all. Please help shed some light what should be my #1...

This is my thought
USC: Busy, Busy, Busy, More autonomy, EM runs the hospital, Lots of Trauma, US program is strong, great reputation, will have new hospital in a couple of years/ BUT almost a homogenous patient population: East LA poor county patients and Trauma

UCLA/Oliveview: 2 hospital system. Oliveview gives you the county pateints and UCLA gives you the wierd Dz and transplant patients that you never see/ Low in Trauma (I'm not that into Trauma to begin with, I think it just bogs your ER down)/ But more hand holding, driving from Hospital to hospital can be a pain, US program has just been kickstarted, but for some reason...it wants me to rank it #1

What to do??? Please help!

I mean CRAP MAN?!? What more can you want: County pt population w/ a ton of trauma! 🙂
Ok, seriously both are fantastic programs w/ strong reputations.

Feel: The 2 places are night and day. USC is the quintessential county program. Super busy, tons of trauma and crazyness and an all around good time with a boat load of autonomy. UCLA has more of an academic feel. Less trauma, more time to sit and think.

Path: I have to disagree w/ you on pathology though. Yeah, UCLA you have all the kooky transplant pt's coming around. But hell, have you ever seen mushroom's growing in someone's ear? All in all I think you will get super sick pt's at both. The trauma at USC can't be beat. It is one of the largest centers in the world and the ER runs it. Yeah trauma isn't the bread and butter of of EM in the real world, but it sure is a hell of a lot of fun!

Pt Population: Just a little different. At UCLA you will treat moviestars, Playboy Bunnies, rich and the indigent. USC treats mainly the indigent/immigrant pop, but this gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling sometimes, you know helping the poor and what not.


In the end figure out what feels right.
FG

 

[USMan22]

I mean CRAP MAN?!? What more can you want: County pt population w/ a ton of trauma! 🙂
Ok, seriously both are fantastic programs w/ strong reputations.

Feel: The 2 places are night and day. USC is the quintessential county program. Super busy, tons of trauma and crazyness and an all around good time with a boat load of autonomy. UCLA has more of an academic feel. Less trauma, more time to sit and think.

Path: I have to disagree w/ you on pathology though. Yeah, UCLA you have all the kooky transplant pt's coming around. But hell, have you ever seen mushroom's growing in someone's ear? All in all I think you will get super sick pt's at both. The trauma at USC can't be beat. It is one of the largest centers in the world and the ER runs it. Yeah trauma isn't the bread and butter of of EM in the real world, but it sure is a hell of a lot of fun!

Pt Population: Just a little different. At UCLA you will treat moviestars, Playboy Bunnies, rich and the indigent. USC treats mainly the indigent/immigrant pop, but this gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling sometimes, you know helping the poor and what not.


In the end figure out what feels right.
FG

Point well taken!

 

[LuvbugMD]

I definitely agree with many of the above statements. In my opinion, USC and UCLA/Olive View are completely different programs. I believe it comes down to if you prefer a strong clinical program or a strong academic program.

LAC/USC will definitely provide you with a strong clinical training. Upon completion of residency, you will be highly prepared to handle any situation that you are faced with. However, it may come at the expense of working highly intense shifts with "little" supervision (they are changing this aspect significantly.) Also, they are trying to build the program's academic opportunities. In terms of the patients, USC is truly a "county" hospital that serves the most indigent and needy people in LA. I think the patient population at USC is great, but it is not for everyone.

UCLA/ Olive View is definitely more of the ivory tower of the Los Angeles EM programs. The program has a nice amount of money to support its residents in their academic endeavors. The patients at the medical center tend to have several co-morbidities and are of every SES background. Olive View is county, but it is not like USC. The patients are mainly "working poor" and/or immigrants. Most of the pathology is "bread and butter" which complements the complicated patients at the medical center.

Overall, I think the best thing to do is to think about what you are looking for in a program. Both programs will train you to be great EP. However, what additional experiences would you like to have? Good luck!

 

[USMan22]

I definitely agree with many of the above statements. In my opinion, USC and UCLA/Olive View are completely different programs. I believe it comes down to if you prefer a strong clinical program or a strong academic program.

LAC/USC will definitely provide you with a strong clinical training. Upon completion of residency, you will be highly prepared to handle any situation that you are faced with. However, it may come at the expense of working highly intense shifts with "little" supervision (they are changing this aspect significantly.) Also, they are trying to build the program's academic opportunities. In terms of the patients, USC is truly a "county" hospital that serves the most indigent and needy people in LA. I think the patient population at USC is great, but it is not for everyone.

UCLA/ Olive View is definitely more of the ivory tower of the Los Angeles EM programs. The program has a nice amount of money to support its residents in their academic endeavors. The patients at the medical center tend to have several co-morbidities and are of every SES background. Olive View is county, but it is not like USC. The patients are mainly "working poor" and/or immigrants. Most of the pathology is "bread and butter" which complements the complicated patients at the medical center.

Overall, I think the best thing to do is to think about what you are looking for in a program. Both programs will train you to be great EP. However, what additional experiences would you like to have? Good luck!

I would like to dabble in International medicine someday....which points me towards UCLA/Oliveview. Their 4th year 3 months elective is great for this. USC has similar opportunities but not as broad as UCLA...Anyway thanks for the input. I love both programs, I'll think about it for another 24hrs or so..hehehe

 

[quideam]

interesting... I'm just a second year, so you can feel free to discount everything i'm saying 😀, but I always thought that a place like USC, where you literally see and do just about everything in a pretty hectic environment would be better for international medicine. I'm interested in international EM too, which is why I *think* that when it comes down to it, i'll probably be choosing 'crazier' residencies. As for the elective time, I was under the impression that USC PGY-4s a lot of times do an infectious disease program abroad (don't remember the location, but somewhere in south america, i think) - which is of course really relevant.

Anyway, I was just wasting time on SDN and came across this thread and thought i'd add my $.02. Okay, okay... so it' only worth $.00002 😛.

Q

 

[GeneralVeers]

Why not Harbor/UCLA? They have the crazy/hectic county pace that makes USC good, they get tons of trauma, and best of all it's only 3 years.

 

[USMan22]

Why not Harbor/UCLA? They have the crazy/hectic county pace that makes USC good, they get tons of trauma, and best of all it's only 3 years.

The fools didnt inverview me...Would have loved to rank it..but no love!

 

[dlung]

I'll be bold and say if you're not sure you want to go to LA County, you probably shouldn't... any county program will make you very unhappy if you're not a "county-type" at heart--I only say this since every county program I interviewed at last year asked me specifically if I knew what I was getting into if I went there...

 

[GeneralVeers]

The fools didnt inverview me...Would have loved to rank it..but no love!

The fools! They shall be punished for their insolence

 

[GTR]

As someone who has to take pt from UCLA ER everyday, I can tell you that UCLA ER resident is not strong at all. First of all, there is a Medicine resident in the ER 24/7 serving as a gate keeper for all the admission into medicine service. The Medicine resident has to sign a form for the pt to be admitted. The ER resident has to ask permission from Medicine resident to admit patients, although by policy it's the ER attending that has an ultimate say, and Medicine resident's job is to triage where to go, ICU vs ward vs Chest pain. I just cannot imagine how strong of a program it can be when they have to go thru that kind of process to admit someone. I totally wish we have something like that in surgery, because I can tell you that they don't handle know how to handle trauma and especially ortho pt. Their attending always stand in the corner.

And the fact that UCLA is such a tertiary center, and all pt is having funky disease actually is a very bad thing for all these residents. All they have to do is to look into the computer which has tons of previous note in it. For example, if there is one from liver transplant, then they will stop doing any workup, and just write "admit to liver" in their A/P WITHOUT even bothering to write down any lab value! This happens way too frequent regardless of how busy the ER is.

Overall, this ER is weak, and I think most of UCLA housestaff will agree c me. And they are just a division of Internal Medicine, not even a department.

Don't know too much about USC, but I heard from my trauma surgery friend there it is just insane there, and the residents there are definitely much stronger..

Again, I am extremely biased because of all the countless admissions without any workup.

 

[totalbodypain]

As someone who has to take pt from UCLA ER everyday, I can tell you that UCLA ER resident is not strong at all. First of all, there is a Medicine resident in the ER 24/7 serving as a gate keeper for all the admission into medicine service. The Medicine resident has to sign a form for the pt to be admitted. The ER resident has to ask permission from Medicine resident to admit patients, although by policy it's the ER attending that has an ultimate say, and Medicine resident's job is to triage where to go, ICU vs ward vs Chest pain. I just cannot imagine how strong of a program it can be when they have to go thru that kind of process to admit someone. I totally wish we have something like that in surgery, because I can tell you that they don't handle know how to handle trauma and especially ortho pt. Their attending always stand in the corner.

And the fact that UCLA is such a tertiary center, and all pt is having funky disease actually is a very bad thing for all these residents. All they have to do is to look into the computer which has tons of previous note in it. For example, if there is one from liver transplant, then they will stop doing any workup, and just write "admit to liver" in their A/P WITHOUT even bothering to write down any lab value! This happens way too frequent regardless of how busy the ER is.

Overall, this ER is weak, and I think most of UCLA housestaff will agree c me. And they are just a division of Internal Medicine, not even a department.

Don't know too much about USC, but I heard from my trauma surgery friend there it is just insane there, and the residents there are definitely much stronger..

Again, I am extremely biased because of all the countless admissions without any workup.

Yawwwwn.....Must of been a rough call night for you. I'll be thinking of you after my 8 hour shift is over....

 

[GTR]

Then pls make sure you sign out every pt of yours to next resident. Last month I was paged to see a pt in room 10 by a resident because he just realized that no one had actually seen the pt after 10 or more hours, and nurse complained about the pt still having abdominal pain. He did not know anything about the pt, did not get sign out from previous resident. It's in rm 10, how the **** could that happen? I then asked the attending, even he did not get sign out. No one in the whole freaking ER know about the pt. No lab, no nothing!

Morgan or Baraff should really put everything back in order before they retire.

 

[tiene dolor?]

As someone who has to take pt from UCLA ER everyday, I can tell you that UCLA ER resident is not strong at all. First of all, there is a Medicine resident in the ER 24/7 serving as a gate keeper for all the admission into medicine service. The Medicine resident has to sign a form for the pt to be admitted. The ER resident has to ask permission from Medicine resident to admit patients, although by policy it's the ER attending that has an ultimate say, and Medicine resident's job is to triage where to go, ICU vs ward vs Chest pain. I just cannot imagine how strong of a program it can be when they have to go thru that kind of process to admit someone. I totally wish we have something like that in surgery, because I can tell you that they don't handle know how to handle trauma and especially ortho pt. Their attending always stand in the corner.

And the fact that UCLA is such a tertiary center, and all pt is having funky disease actually is a very bad thing for all these residents. All they have to do is to look into the computer which has tons of previous note in it. For example, if there is one from liver transplant, then they will stop doing any workup, and just write "admit to liver" in their A/P WITHOUT even bothering to write down any lab value! This happens way too frequent regardless of how busy the ER is.

Overall, this ER is weak, and I think most of UCLA housestaff will agree c me. And they are just a division of Internal Medicine, not even a department.

Don't know too much about USC, but I heard from my trauma surgery friend there it is just insane there, and the residents there are definitely much stronger..

Again, I am extremely biased because of all the countless admissions without any workup.

Just to be clear here - you are obviously referring to UCLA Olive-View.

 

[EctopicFetus]

Dude there are some majorly bitter people on here. FYI my buddies older bro is a sr resident at USC.. He complains about the ED as well. It seems like everyone complains about the ED.. *yawn*..

 

[steven1174]

From my limited experience, it seems that the folks in the ED are the most hated folks in the whole hospital and understandably so. Its nothing personal I think, its just that a call from the ED usually means WORK, and most folks rather not work.

 

[GTR]

Hey, Steven1174,
get to my level first, PGY5, and then speak. your experiences with UCLA ED is REALLY limited.

 

[Apollyon]

Hey, Steven1174,
get to my level first, PGY5, and then speak. your experiences with UCLA ED is REALLY limited.

So you're a PGY5 medicine resident with a limited grasp of English (based on your grammar) - who has the problem here?

 

[GTR]

Thanks for correcting my grammar on the internet. I really needed that. PGY5 medicine resident!? There is no such thing as a PGY5 in Medicine. Medicine program is only 3 year long. I am the guy who take care of your acute abdomin pts.

BTW, how many languages do you speak? I speak four. I wonder how your grammar is in other lanuguages.

Bye bye.

 

[Apollyon]

Thanks for correcting my grammar on the internet. I really needed that. PGY5 medicine resident!? There is no such thing as a PGY5 in Medicine. Medicine program is only 3 year long. I am the guy who take care of your acute abdomin pts.

BTW, how many languages do you speak? I speak four. I wonder how your grammar is in other lanuguages.

Bye bye.

Yeah, I know medicine is 3 years - so, why are you taking the medicine admissions - or, are you saying that you are a surgery resident (as "the guy who take (sic) care of your acute abdomin (sic) pts.")? --> in case you don't know, "sic" in parentheses is written to mean "what is prior is verbatim" (that is, that the errors are yours, and not mine)

I also speak 4 languages, and my grammar is better than yours. I have had people not believe I was not a native speaker of both French and Spanish, and you would never be mistaken for a native English speaker. Your insults fall short, and your analysis of UCLA is biased and unhelpful.

 

[EctopicFetus]

This is sure to be fun!

*sits back to watch*

 

[ERMudPhud]

This is sure to be fun!

*sits back to watch*

I have to agree. I'm surprised Dr. McFatty pants hasn't shown up yet

Although I have to say it seemed pretty clear to me that GTR was a surgery resident. The sentence, "I totally wish we have something like that in surgery..." in his first post seemed to make the point. I also have to say that I wouldn't want to work anywhere that had a medicine resident acting as the gate keeper out of the ER.

Anyway, I really only speak three languages and only two of those fluently so I'll stay out of the rest of the argument

 

[Apollyon]

Although I have to say it seemed pretty clear to me that GTR was a surgery resident. The sentence, "I totally wish we have something like that in surgery..." in his first post seemed to make the point. I also have to say that I wouldn't want to work anywhere that had a medicine resident acting as the gate keeper out of the ER.

Hey, you're right (as usual) - so much for critical reading skills. Since I didn't pore over every word, that is how I missed this. Our surgery folks (especially the chiefs) have no idea how medicine admits where I am.

Whatever. I'm done with this thread. EM bashers will continue to bash. I'm on vacation now, and the only GTR I knew (beyond the "Grand Trunk Railroad") was a strip bar that burned down.

 

[blackbird03]

Hi,


I'm a third year med student and I really would die to go do residency at UCLA-Olive View ER. Do I have a chance in hell if I have only average board scores (220s) and all Ps during my third year? Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[EctopicFetus]

Blackbird,

Rotate there and make a good impression, get to know the PD and other "important" attendings. Basically the translation is, show up early, work hard and smart, know your stuff, dont give attitude and have a positive outlook, those "hints" will get you a long way to your goal.