San Antonio anesthesiology program

[missiongirl]

Can anyone provide some up-to-date information on the San Antonio Anesthesiology residency program? I've done a forum search but haven't found much.

With the new Chair in 2006, am wondering with the changes if the residents are treated well and reasonably happy, if people are passing the boards OK, and if there are any current issues with the program.

Also, anybody have info/opinions on doing the 4 week MS-4 elective as a visiting student?

Thanks!

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[jewel1881]

I just graduated from UTHSCSA Medical School and I'm going into Anesthesia. I chose to not do my residency in San Antonio because I thought I should train elsewhere with the potential to come back. I personally think that San Antonio has a great training program. The new chair is a huge advocate of students and applicants. I can't speak for him being an advocate for residents, though I've heard he could do better. He really has a goal of recruiting the best residents that he can get. Interpret that how you want. I think you will get very well-rounded training with diverse cases in San Antonio. I think that the majority of the faculty enjoy teaching and are very knowledgeable (but you may have to ask them questions to get the ball rolling). San Antonio is a very nice place to live. It is not Houston, Dallas, or any other big city. That's good and bad. It has the bad traffic at times to go with the "wannabe big city", but it also has the diversity of patient population to ensure that you get a great training. I think San Antonio would be a great place to train. PM me if you have more questions.

 

[Fastrach]

I did med school at UTHSCSA, and what the above poster refers to as 'diversity' in the patient population in S.A. actually amounts to about 75-80% hispanic (which doesn't seem all that diverse to me, but anyhoo...). Of that hispanic populace, I'd say 75% prefer speaking spanish, and 25% ONLY speak spanish. So unless you feel pretty comfortable with some basic espanol, I'd advise against going there. That being said, I suppose we don't need to know too much spanish on a daily basis in our line of work, but at times it gets really frustrating when you're trying to translate medical-ese to these folks, a big majority of whom have very little insight into their medical conditions, and are often poor, uneducated, social work nightmare kind of peeps. Friendly? Yes, usually exceedingly... but you may find yourself banging your head on a wall regularly from dealing with these barriers. Oh, and I haven't mentioned the high rate of HIV/Hep C/TB/MRSA, IVDU, gang violence, teen pregnancy........... you catch my drift.

 

[lane]

I also just graduated from UTHSCSA and chose to do my training elsewhere mostly because I wanted to see a different way of doing things and a different part of the country. San Antonio does have some great faculty and offers very good training. The cost of living is dirt cheap and you have everything you would need from a major city, although with more of a small town feel. The RRC recently lowered the accreditation from 5 years (maximum) to 3 years (not great)... according to one faculty member it was partly due to politics but they did get knocked for lack of research, lack of faculty involvement in pretty pointless superfluous activities, and residents going over work hours during the trauma rotation during intern year (although that was changed this year from the surgery service to ER in order to alleviate that problem). Every year UTHSCSA produces 20-30 anesthesiologists from its graduating classes, so they must be doing something right to entice so many med students into the field...

PM me if you have any specific questions about the program, the city, certain faculty, etc...

 

[gaspasser2004]

When I was looking for anesthesia residencies as a fourth year medical student from Chicago, I did a four week away rotation at UTHSCSA. I liked the program a lot and found everyone to be very friendly. My wife really wanted to move to Texas (San Antonio in particular). In fact, my wife matched for a psychology internship in San Antonio (separate match from me) and we spent a year apart while I did my medicine internship in Chicago. For anesthesia, I matched at Hopkins and we have spent the last three years in Baltimore and are looking forward to moving to Texas in July for my new attending job.

Sometimes I think about the road "not traveled". My wife and I could have been living in a very nice house in San Antonio for the past three years instead of an apartment in the suburbs of Baltimore. While Baltimore winters are better than Chicago winters, San Antonio winters are very nice.

The private practice environment in San Antonio in my opinion is not ideal. It is mostly follow the surgeon model with Tejas and Star. If that is your style, then I guess it is fine, but I prefer a hospital/group based model. I'll be honest, coming from Hopkins, I was able to get interviews at just about every place I made an inquiry and got an offer from every place I interviewed in Texas.

The new chairman, Dr. Andrews, is a great guy. I interviewed with him when I was looking at UAB when he was the vice-chairman. I think he will do great things for the department. However, unless you want to stay at UTHSCSA or work in the follow the surgeon private practice model, you will have to leave San Antonio after residency. That said, San Antonio is a very nice place to be for three or four years. Like all things in life, you have to find the best fit for you.

 

[roja]

I don't know much about the residency there, but even though there is a large hispanic population, I saw a very diverse patient population at University Hospital.


SA is a great town to be an MD in. It was great for medical school and would probably be great to do residency in. The cost of living is very low (and not low as in 'you would hate to live here low). There are good places to eat, a decent museum, close to some beautiful outdoor areas (hiking, camping etc in the hill country). There is a weekend nightlife.

I haven't really wanted to move back to Tx but if I did, the only place I would live is SA. If you have questions about SA in general, feel free to PM me.

 

[missiongirl]

When I was looking for anesthesia residencies as a fourth year medical student from Chicago, I did a four week away rotation at UTHSCSA. I liked the program a lot and found everyone to be very friendly. My wife really wanted to move to Texas (San Antonio in particular). In fact, my wife matched for a psychology internship in San Antonio (separate match from me) and we spent a year apart while I did my medicine internship in Chicago. For anesthesia, I matched at Hopkins and we have spent the last three years in Baltimore and are looking forward to moving to Texas in July for my new attending job.

Sometimes I think about the road "not traveled". My wife and I could have been living in a very nice house in San Antonio for the past three years instead of an apartment in the suburbs of Baltimore. While Baltimore winters are better than Chicago winters, San Antonio winters are very nice.

The private practice environment in San Antonio in my opinion is not ideal. It is mostly follow the surgeon model with Tejas and Star. If that is your style, then I guess it is fine, but I prefer a hospital/group based model. I'll be honest, coming from Hopkins, I was able to get interviews at just about every place I made an inquiry and got an offer from every place I interviewed in Texas.

The new chairman, Dr. Andrews, is a great guy. I interviewed with him when I was looking at UAB when he was the vice-chairman. I think he will do great things for the department. However, unless you want to stay at UTHSCSA or work in the follow the surgeon private practice model, you will have to leave San Antonio after residency. That said, San Antonio is a very nice place to be for three or four years. Like all things in life, you have to find the best fit for you.

Thanks to everyone for the valuable info.

Gaspasser2004,
Congratulations on your new attending job!

Any more elaboration on the 'follow the surgeon model'--I am not familiar with exactly what this means. It would be incredibly helpful to hear a little more about the two different types of practice environments described in San Antonio vs. what other options there are elsewhere that makes San Antonio less than ideal.

I really appreciate the information. Thank you!