UT-Houston Pain Program

[C Fiber]

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🙁 For those out there applying for anesthesia in Texas. Beware of UT-Houston. They are going through a lot of changes right now. The Pain program was shut down within 3 weeks. The new chairman is also letting go many of the residents' favorite attendings - not renewing their visa, etc... Many support staff laid off or resigning because of fear.....

 

[UTSouthwestern]

🙁 For those out there applying for anesthesia in Texas. Beware of UT-Houston. They are going through a lot of changes right now. The Pain program was shut down within 3 weeks. The new chairman is also letting go many of the residents' favorite attendings - not renewing their visa, etc... Many support staff laid off or resigning because of fear.....

That sucks. Who is the new chairman? I know that one of our faculty members was approached about taking the job, but he decided not to go for whatever reason. The pain program at Houston was a quirky one in that they would make you sign an agreement NOT to take a position in Houston in order to come to the program.

 

[cloud9]

That sucks. Who is the new chairman? I know that one of our faculty members was approached about taking the job, but he decided not to go for whatever reason. The pain program at Houston was a quirky one in that they would make you sign an agreement NOT to take a position in Houston in order to come to the program.

The new chair is Arens formerly of UTMB. The powers-that-be told him that the department is losing too much money and that cuts MUST be made. The Pain clinic never made any money for the department, so it went adios. According to one of the chiefs, one pain doc is staying and the residents will get their pain training at MDAH. Contrary to what may be said outside the school, it is not chaos here 🙄 . No one seems to be concerned. I'm doing my Anes elective at the moment and none of the residents seem to be bothered by the change. I haven't heard about any cuts to the other staff but no one has been panicking that I could see.

 

[C Fiber]

The word is already out that the program director who has spend her whole career and life's effort in her residents is RESIGNING!!!! At least 2 more doc's have accepted positions at other institutions. MDAH is strong on cancer pain & palliation. Chronic pain and acute pain experience is another question. None of the pain doc at Hermann is staying. The whole department is not making money...not just the pain clinic per the chairman. Correction, Dr. Arens was a chairman of MDAH just prior to UT-Houston. Before that he Was at Galveston. You decide - new chairman, program director resigning, missing few more attendings, secretarial/computer people leaving department, still missing 1 million dollars even after cutting pain clinic..... If this is panic time or not.

 

[UTSouthwestern]

Sue Lehr is resigning? Ouch. I know Ahrens has a rep as a tough, but thorough teacher. As with any changing of the guard, he may feel that he needs to shake things up and bring in his own people. Sue was also pushing for the chair's position so her not getting the job may also have something to do with her decision to leave. Any program that does get her should feel grateful to get her, though. Disbanding the pain division makes no sense as that is a big part of anesthesiology program.

 

[cloud9]

Sue Lehr is resigning? Ouch. I know Ahrens has a rep as a tough, but thorough teacher. As with any changing of the guard, he may feel that he needs to shake things up and bring in his own people. Sue was also pushing for the chair's position so her not getting the job may also have something to do with her decision to leave. Any program that does get her should feel grateful to get her, though. Disbanding the pain division makes no sense as that is a big part of anesthesiology program.

Somebody said today that Luehr is resigning as well. I hadn't heard that yet. She told us at the beginning of the month that she was going to take two weeks off at the end of the month (she didn't say why). I haven't been in the OR the past two days so what I knew was as of Tuesday evening and this was from one of the chiefs. Another rumor was that the program was only granted two years of accreditation or something to that effect the last time they were looked at and will have to be "re-evaluated" for lack of a better word. Any ideas what this means?

Other than the dissolving of the acute pain clinic (from Aren's mouth) everything else has been rumor or hearsay to me. As far as what is actually true, I have no idea. It may be all going to pot, although it hadn't appeared that way as of Tuesday.

 

[cloud9]

Correction, Dr. Arens was a chairman of MDAH just prior to UT-Houston. Before that he Was at Galveston.

I knew that he had been at MDAH. It seems that most are more familiar with his history at UTMB. I didn't want to give a running biography of his travels. 😉 I thought he had been at Galveston for a long time and MDAH breifly.

 

[UTSouthwestern]

Somebody said today that Luehr is resigning as well. I hadn't heard that yet. She told us at the beginning of the month that she was going to take two weeks off at the end of the month (she didn't say why). I haven't been in the OR the past two days so what I knew was as of Tuesday evening and this was from one of the chiefs. Another rumor was that the program was only granted two years of accreditation or something to that effect the last time they were looked at and will have to be "re-evaluated" for lack of a better word. Any ideas what this means?

Other than the dissolving of the acute pain clinic (from Aren's mouth) everything else has been rumor or hearsay to me. As far as what is actually true, I have no idea. It may be all going to pot, although it hadn't appeared that way as of Tuesday.

A two year accreditation means that the ACGME has some concerns with the program that they feel warrants an earlier return for evaluation for accreditation than usual. If a program is 100% sound, the next evaluation is set for 4 or 5 years into the future. Less than that indicates that a program has drawn less confidence from the ACGME than 100%.

 

[UTSouthwestern]

Well, this now begins to make more sense to me. If Ahrens was MD Anderson's chairman, this move may have been a preemptive move on UT Houston's part as well as an attempt to correct any program deficiencies present. Since it is not likely to happen now, I guess I can let one cat out of the bag: A strong rumor was circulating for the past year that MD Anderson was going to start its own anesthesiology residency program, giving Houston 3 programs in that city. I can see this move as a preemptive move by Houston to prevent that from happening and losing one of its valued rotation sites as well as to prevent even more competition from arising in the TMC.

Interesting. Ahrens may be a little too old school for a program that may need an injection of dynamic, flexible leadership to move it to the next level. If he adopts a my way or the high way approach, as it seems to be thus far, you may see a lot of extra traffic on the highways leading out of Houston.

 

[cloud9]

Well, this now begins to make more sense to me. If Ahrens was MD Anderson's chairman, this move may have been a preemptive move on UT Houston's part as well as an attempt to correct any program deficiencies present. Since it is not likely to happen now, I guess I can let one cat out of the bag: A strong rumor was circulating for the past year that MD Anderson was going to start its own anesthesiology residency program, giving Houston 3 programs in that city. I can see this move as a preemptive move by Houston to prevent that from happening and losing one of its valued rotation sites as well as to prevent even more competition from arising in the TMC.

Interesting. Ahrens may be a little too old school for a program that may need an injection of dynamic, flexible leadership to move it to the next level. If he adopts a my way or the high way approach, as it seems to be thus far, you may see a lot of extra traffic on the highways leading out of Houston.

You'll have to forgive my "yeah, whatever" attitude. I'm not one to believe rumors. They just tend to grow way beyond any reasonable proportion. This info makes a bit more sense and makes it more reasonable. That being said, until it comes from the source, it is still just hearsay in my book (hearsay that may turn out to be true, but hearsay none the less). It'll be interesting to see what the story turns out to be.

 

[bigpannus]

As a new CA-1 at UT Houston, I have heard the many rumors around the dept about who's coming and leaving. Though Arens may seem like a hardball, I do think he is trying to make the program stronger and more reputable. The program has always been strong in the clinical aspect but has always lacked in academics (ex. low board scores in past). He's doing this by trying to recruit more faculty that are U.S trained and board certified. The former chair Dr. Katz was from South Africa and brought a lot of his people over. In reality to have faculty from the US looks more reputable to the applicant, no matter how good of a teacher or anesthesiologist an fmg is.

My experience so far has been fantastic! The faculty, support staff and the nurses have been wonderful to work with. My feeling is that though some of the older residents (CA 3s) are unhappy with some of the decisions, the newer classes seem to understand what Arens is doing and support his decisions.

 

[undecided05]

I find this all a bit strange... and I was not going to comment until the comment about Katz being from South Africa. Don't think that that matters at all. For one thing, Katz stepped down from the chair program to take a position involved more with the med school as a whole. Him being from S Africa should have no bearing on boards cores or quality of a program at UT-Houston. He is not only known as a quality teacher, but has made some of the greatest contibutions to anesthesia ( Co2 detector) in the US and the world. I was impressed with the faculty when I interviewed there... the Americans and the "foreigners".
If Susan Leur is gone, then wow, I can't believe that Katz would allow that even though he is no longer chair. I guess it's all speculation, but I'd say wait and see how it all plays out. The OP seems like a bitter person for one reason or another. Who knows that their motives are. I would't write this program off. Everyone there seemed happy last year. I never was impressed with the pain program though... Like I said let time, work these things out and not rumors.

 

[bigpannus]

I'm not trying to shed a negative light on Dr. Katz or any forein attendings. I do know what Dr. Katz and some of his colleagues have done. The attendings here are very good and it would be a shame to see them go. But I think Arens' argument is that though they can train you to be excellent anesthesiologist, can they train you to pass the boards? Arens wants to bring more academics into the program. Some of the attendings aren't board certified, and those are the ones who might eventually end up leaving.

 

[Myotonia]

I've met some of the attendings in the pain clinic. The director of pain seems pretty interventional - vertebroplasty, stims in the OR by himself. I think all are board certified.

 

[PainFellow]

MDAH is strong on cancer pain & palliation. Chronic pain and acute pain experience is another question.

Actually, this statement is somewhat misleading. There are three pain services at MDACC: 1) acute 2) chronic and 3) palliative care. The acute service handles post op pain. The chronic pain service is quite strong and very interventional. The palliative service takes over when the chronic service has done all it can. All three services manage cancer pain so I'm not sure what the above poster really meant.