University of Kansas (KUMC) Residency Reviews

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

yeeeeeeeah

Full Member
10+ Year Member
15+ Year Member
Joined
Mar 3, 2007
Messages
35
Reaction score
0
ROL
The city for each program played a big role in my list.
1. Baylor: Pros: I liked Houston a lot and grew up in and still have most of my family in the SW. I liked the residents. Faculty seemed cool and are from all over. I think I would like to end up in the SW when I'm done with residency. Ben Taub was nicer than I was expecting and the Texas Medical Center was impressive, some Peds EM at Texas Children's Hospital. 6 months of ICU. I'd get to work on my Spanish. Free lunch everyday while working in the ED. 8's during the week and 12's on weekends to allow for a weekend off a month while in the ED. (I've forgotten how many shifts- 20-22ish?)
Cons: Newer Program (In its first year). Houston Traffic. Moonlight starting 3rd year. Residents Pay for parking.
2.Univ. of TN- Chattanooga: Pros: I rotated here and like the faculty and the residents. No floor months (Peds or IM). About 5 ICU months. Nice hospital, Nice ED. Free food + parking. Newer program (in it's 3rd year) but has a lot of support from the college of Medicine and Hospital- the Dean of the College of Med is an EP and the president elect of ACEP. Good "outdoor activities." Variety of good food- I've was pleasantly surprised. I'd be very happy to end up here, and thought about putting them number 1 but chose Houston over Chatt. 17 12's as an R1, 17 10's as R2, and 16 10's as an R3 (or something close to that).
Cons: Not a big city, although Nashville and Atlanta are close by (not a plus for me). Not a great place to fly out of- most flights take you to Nashville or Atl first. No family nearby.
3. JPS: Pros: Some of the faculty seemed pretty cool. Fort Worth seemed ok from what I saw during my 1 day visit. I like most of the curriculum- about 6 months of ICU. 1 mo of Cardiology is a plus in my book. Nice ED. Free food + parking. Good benefits package. Dallas nearby. This program could have gone lower on my list, but I like the city more than the ones below, and although the idea of being at a brand new program is a little scary it didn't scare me off. Also, it could be cool to be the senior-most resident in the ED on day 1 and not have 2 classes above to compete with for procedures and cool cases.
Cons: Brand New Program. Hard to get a feel for things because no residents to talk with. PD not at interview day. 2 months of Medicine. No Peds EM integrated into Adult EM months (this was the issue that most worried me, but the Assoc. PD said that they will see what the residents think and are working on some of the hospitals nearby but have nothing solid as of the time I interviewed. They do however, have 3 months of Peds EM- 1mo as an R2 and 2mo's as an R3 at Children's Hosp. of Dallas. Nothing R1 year).
4. Kansas City (KUMC): Pros: Nice people, Nice ED
Cons: 1 mo of Medicine + 1 mo of Peds, Newer program ( in 1st year), I think KC may be a bit colder or more snowy than what I'm looking for
5. Arkansas: Pros: Established program. Nice people. Newly built ED that was pretty nice. I believe an EM resident is involved in/runs all of the Traumas. A lot of moonlighting opportunities.
Cons: Little Rock. Residents give a lot of the lectures. 1 mo of Medicine at the VA (I think they may consider changing this?) 1 Month of Peds Flight experience (I think this is a combined EMS/Flight experience. You can opt out of the helicopter rides and do an additional month of PICU instead, but most people don't). All 12's (R1- 18, R2-17, R3- 16)
6. Christus Spohn: Pros: The beach. Good weather year round. Family is the only other program, so when you are off service you are working w/attendings. EM handles the all of the traumas (no surgery residents). No call, except for one service.. PICU, I think. Everything else is shift work. When on Trauma, it's 12 hr shifts. Moonlighting opportunites. 9 hr ED shifts (20/19/18 for R1/2/3). Weekly quizzes to go with reading (+/-) Free food + gated parking. Optional flight experience. 1 mo of Cardiology.
Cons: Older EDs. Level Two Trauma center (although they say they see plenty, plus no surgery residents to compete with). 1 mo of Neurology (they say it's beneficial, bc you're often consulting Neuro, good experience, etc.) 1 mo of Medicine
7. Emory: Pros: I rotated here for a month. I loved Emory (EUH, Emory Hospital- Midtown, etc) but wasn't a fan of Grady. Lots of sick pt.s at all of the EDs. At Grady, at the beginning/end of each shift the teams sort-of mini round on all of the pts. , it's brief (about 10 min max) and usually an attending, resident, and med student will share something cool that they saw or learned. Now have EMR. Some cool residents. The SICU month is supposed to put hair on your chest. During intern year (it may be during the first month in the ED) you get a month to cherry-pick procedures and can take some from the upper levels so that you get more comfortable and more experienced during that month. A lot of the faculty were very nice and the residents seem to like each other. I believe Emory gets the most NIH research money for EM. 8hr shifts during week, 12's on weekend to allow for 1 weekend off a month while in ED. Around 22 shifts a month(?).
Cons: Grady just wasn't really my style. Very crowded. Lots of pts on stretchers in the hallway, my 3rd year wheeled a pt to CT and then I took him to X-ray. A lot of the rooms don't have functioning ophthalmoscopes or otoscopes. Some of the labs didn't get drawn on a few pts. Very large class size (19, likely going up to 20). 1 mo of Medicine. ATL traffic. I'm also not a big fan of ATL and I think that colored my experience as well. I think it is a good program. Most of my mentors in EM went to Emory and they are awesome, that's one of the reasons why I wanted to check it out. I think when you come through the program you'll be very well prepared. 75% of the program is at Grady, 25% at Emory. Because of this and since I didn't like the city either, It had to be a lower ranking for me. I agree that Grady really is a place you should rotate at if you very interested in going there for residency. You'll find out if you like it or not during that month and they take heavily from those who have rotated (in one class, I think 18 of the 19 did a rotation there).
8. St. Louis (SLU): Pros: 1 mo of Tox + 1 mo of Burn Unit. St. Louis can be a violent city (trauma).
Cons: St. Louis can be a violent city. Small ED with lower pt census (I believe around 35K/yr). Interview day was a bit disorganized. Newer program (in it's 2nd year) 1 mo of Peds, IM, and Neuro. A couple of awkward interviews, although PD seemed cool. I also missed the pre-interview dinner and didn't get to meet some of the residents.
9. MS: Pros: A lot of moonlighting opportunities. Since it's a 4 yr program, they have room for all of the things that other programs pick only a few of (Cardio, Radiology, EKG, Tox, Ultrasound, Peds Sedation, TeleMedicine). Most of the resident were pretty cool.
Cons: 4 years is about 1 year too long for me. Jackson. 1 mo IM. 1st year is very off-service heavy, only 3 mos of EM (2 adult + 1 Peds).

Members don't see this ad.
 
I wasn't going to submit this post, however, felt being obligated to comment on the EM at KUMC (University of Kansas) since I respect everyone who needs additional info for their rank lists. I did four week EM elective at this place.
1. the clerkship director seems enjoying teaching what is "fisting" and the related topics rather than medical concepts to the students during their shifts.
2. the department chair was cursing the PD in front of the medical students because the PD pulled all the residents for an annual retreat on that particular day.
3. this female ED attending who was trained at Henry Ford was so full of herself, she did not like medical student presenting cases to her and ignored them most of the time.
4. the PD and the associated PD invited all their KUMC graduates who did EM rotation at KUMC for a procedure day and treated them lunch to bribe them; still most of their students did not rank the program high.
5. the PD also emailed these graduates that the program was going to rank them high; it seems to be a NRMP violation.
6. in fact, two of the KUMC 2012 graduates chose and matched to EM at UMKC (University of Missouri) after they did their EM elective at both UMKC and KUMC; note that UMKC and KUMC are in the same city and just several miles apart. 😀
Anyway, there are so many red flags waving under the cover of this two and half year-old program, I decided not to put this program on my rank list......
 
Last edited:
5. The PD also emailed these graduates that the program was going to rank them high; it is clearly a NRMP violation.

This is not a match violation--it only would have been had they'd asked for reciprocation from the applicants.

FYI I didn't apply here/have no ties or knowledge of the program.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
Any recent reviews of this program? I would love to hear from some current residents that could maybe counter (or support) the negative reviews on here. Thanks!
 
Current resident with no buyer's remorse here. What are your specific concerns?

Regarding the comments above, I can't really say what happened, sounds like that poster didn't have a very positive experience during a student rotation.

We received a resident increase this year, just matched eight new residents today (previously six per year). Tight knit group of residents given our relatively small size. All of our third years have jobs/fellowships lined up for later this summer. Plenty of moonlighting opportunity in the area for the upper levels who want to do that. No one is hurting for procedures, we get plenty both in the department and off-service. Our ED is busy, all the time, and we see a large proportion of sick patients (largely due to the big cancer patient population and the fact that our fast track area siphons off a lot of the low acuity stuff). No major issues with boarding patients, psych placement, etc. Hospital just broke ground on a new tower slated to open in 2017. ED is currently renovating the back area so that we will have more rooms for the main ED - good thing because our volumes are steadily increasing.
 
Top