UT Houston Residency Reviews

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ElZorro

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Interview Day: began with the obligatory talk about how cool their program is and why you should consider it. No powerpoint, just the PD. The PD is kinda different, but in a somewhat refreshing way. Kinda has a beach bum sorta thing going. Then, we had 5 (I think) interviews, which were everywhere from "Tell me about yourself....," i.e. "I did not read your application," to very specific questions about medical school acitivities and other relevant topics. No pimping or anything, just your regular old interview type stuff.

Location: Houston, you either love it or hate it. It is a huge city (4th in US) with every great thing about big cities and every bad thing about big cities. Traffic is miserable (think about 80% of LA), the weather is HUMID. The city also though boasts some fantastic eating, great culture, and a really cool ethnic feel, in that you can find pretty much any type of cuisine or cultural shopping you want. Everything from India to China to of course Latino. The arts seen is pretty active, with a good deal of theater and symphony offerings. Sports are everywhere, they just might not be good teams. The actual medical center is in a pretty nice area, with lots of trees and surrounded by very affluent neighborhoods on one side and sketchier areas on the other. The medical center is Amazing! The largest medical center in the world, having MD Anderson, Ben Taub, DeBakey Center, and the list goes on. It is truly a mecca of medicine. The hospital which houses the program is Hermann, which is a private hospital and is actually very nice. ED is somewhat average, but certainly not bad. Trauma rooms are very small, but otherwise it looks like they have a pretty good set up.

Program: Trauma, trauma, trauma. If you love trauma, look closely at UT H. They are one of 2 level I's in Houston, and the other one doesn't have a helipad, so UTH gets all the air traffic plus slightly under 50% of the ground stuff. Lots of penetrating, lots of blunt. Trauma experience is their biggest positive in terms of education. Education is closely monitored here, with monthly quizzes over reading that they take pretty serious. In my opinion, there might have been a little too much hand holding and not enough independent study, but thats just me. Some people may really thrive in that approach. Residents seemed OK with UTH, though none seemed really thrilled to be there. They said "we work hard.." This was not followed by the usual EM sentiment "we play hard." Here, it was just "we work hard." So, take from that what you want. Pay is lower than alot of programs, and even though cost of living in Texas is very low, Houston is a bit higher than other cities in the state. They work 12 hour shifts, and sounded like they all pretty much enjoyed their off service months. They make a big deal that they don't have any medicine wards on their rotations, which is pretty cool. No month of rounding talking about Mg and Albumin. you can get enough of that in the ICUs.

Summary: I will not rank this program in the top 5 probably. I would however recommend that if you get an interview here to go, because it is a solid program. Not great, but definantly solid. Trauma experience appears to be excellent. Weak aspects in my mind were overall approach to education and maybe they work you a little harder than the average residency. Houston is a headache, but it also has so much to offer if you can get over the big city problems.

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I originally posted this in the Unofficial 2009 ROL thread but I'm posting here so that folks down the line can get more hits when they search for various programs.

1. Texas A&M-Scott & White - Loved the facilities, great reputation in Texas and surrounding regions, LOVED the residents and faculty. Feels like home. Brought my wife back for a second look and it was a giant love-fest. :) Training is extremely good, great location, and extremely family friendly.

2. Duke Univ Med Ctr-NC - I loved the PD (Sarah Stahmer), the faculty, and the residents. I definitely felt as if I could spend three years with these guys. The feel-goodness started at the resident social and continued on. I was also impressed by the group of applicants who were there with me (one of my hidden indicators). Excellent training, though a bit too university hospital biased. Duke name and reputation, facilities, and Raleigh-Durham is gorgeous. Family in the area. Would be excited to end up here.

3. UC San Francisco-CA - One of those programs with that "X-factor" that's hard to describe; yet you know it when you see it. Really liked the PD and Assistant PD. ;) Fantastic facilities, really top-notch faculty, residents were nice and very welcoming. New program and that brings with it problems; however, I've made something of a habit of helping to establish new organizations and I love a challenge. Though SF is hideously expensive, we think that we can make it happen. Plus it's SF! Gorgeous city and TONS to do when we're not working. Family (a well-traveled bunch) would be thrilled too and have already promised to visit all the time if we end up there. :)

4. University Hosp-Cincinnati-OH - My favorite program by far when considered in and of itself. However, when those "other factors" get thrown in, it was hard to rank them higher. Spent a month there, absolutely LOVED the program. Seriously. This is truly one of those X-factor places and watching their fourth years was insanely impressive. Wish that I could have ranked them higher. But if by some ridiculous longshot we end up there, then I will probably be their most enthusiastic resident EVER. :)

5. U Texas Med Sch-Houston - solid program in a city that I love, close to family and friends, good research available, extremely familiar with the medical center and area.

6. University of Virginia - Very good program that a friend rotated with, so I know it's dirt to a degree. Gorgeous town, decently close to family. Kind of isolated and would be harder for my wife to find a job since it's primarily a college town.

7. Ohio State Univ Med Ctr-OH - Heard great things about the program, really enjoyed my interview, residents at my med school rave about the city. Would be very happy to end up there.

8. Christiana Care-DE - One of those programs that I wish that I'd been able to rotate with because I hear so many great things. Really clicked with the faculty, kind so-so with the residents. Newark didn't really impress me much as it reminded me of the concrete suburbia that I wouldn't mind leaving behind. Nonetheless, would be happy to match there.

9. U Michigan Hosps-Ann Arbor - Fantastic program, not really thrilled about the amount of snow/winter/winter schmutz we'd have to deal with. Not looking forward to buying a light box and possibly dealing with SAD.

10. U Arkansas-Little Rock - One of the most relaxed and enjoyable interview days I had on the trail. Brand-spanking new ED which is gorgeous and well thought out. A little concerned about the volume and pathology that they see there. Good faculty and the residents seem like people I'd want to be friends with outside of work. Little Rock seems like a very pleasant place to live, and quite affordable.

11. Christus Spohn Mem Hosp-TX - I think that this program is going to be really outstanding in a couple of years. I had a great interview and with the relative lack of other residencies, you get treated like royalty by the hospital - Close, free parking, free food in the Dr.'s Lounge, relatively few low-yield rotations. However, the wife and I weren't too thrilled at the prospect of living in Corpus for three years, and their are still some rough edges to the program. Nonetheless, I believe that you'd come out of this program a very well trained EP.

12. Pitt County Mem Hosp/Brody SOM-NC - Solid program, had a so-so interview day. Location was a bit of a negative for me as Greenville is so small. On the other hand, it is only about forty minutes from family and it's insanely cheap to live in. I've known some folks from the school and they had very good things to say about the program. Would be okay with matching here.

Bottom line is that I didn't interview at a single place that I wouldn't mind training at. I do think that there is a nearly intangible but real difference (for me) between the top-tier and other programs. Having said that though, the one thing that I've learned from this interview season is that the saying "You get a solid education at any of these places because of the RRC," is probably pretty close to the mark.
 
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This review is by a user who interviewed at this residency and wishes to remain anonymous.

Hospitals:
• Memorial Hermann TMC (University)-main teaching hospital
• Children’s Memorial Hermann-pediatric rotations
• LBJ (public)-OB/GYN month and some ED months.
• Texas Children’s Hospital-peds ED 2nd year
• Methodist Willowbrook (community)- in NW houston, community ED rotation 3rd year

Resident Life:

-Vacay: 2 weeks 1st year + 5 days either around Christmas or New Years, 3 weeks 2nd yr and up.
-Hours: 21 12’s 1st year, 19 12’s 2nd year, 16 12’s 3rd year.
-Culture: Residents seem genuinely happy, feel well-prepared with all but pediatrics. No turf-wars with surgery. Trauma domain: clavicles up for Level 1, everything for Level 2 and below. Faculty and Dr. Luber very receptive to changes in the curriculum, chiefs open to changing schedule. Can moonlight after Jan PGY2 year, several opportunities available.
-Living: low COL in Houston, can live close to main hospital.

Clinical Curriculum:
-3 year program, 5 ICU months (only 1 intern year), 2 elective months, no research or administrative time built-in. Good mix of patients (insured and indigent). Gets all life-flight in Houston (anything from outside the loop that needs to be flown in), lots of blunt trauma. MH-TMC split into Trauma, Medicine and Peds work areas. Main ED only sees 60K per year (that’s adults and peds combined) but very busy trauma center with 28% admission rate (excluding obs). LBJ is a level 3 hospital, but sees tons of bread & butter type pathology. Peds experience is a little weak in that residents on average only have 1 peds shift/month during ED months, 2 dedicated months over the entire residency. In terms of international opportunities, there are faculty have spent time in New Zealand, St. Lucia, India but that’s all on their own time. There is no program funding for residents to travel internationally and unless you get your own source of funding, will only be able to travel on vacation time or take unpaid leave (including paying your own health insurance). Newly implemented 1 month of US PGY1, with opportunity for electives in other years. Two U/S trained faculty.

Didactics:
-Wed AM protected time, 4 hrs lecture and 1 hr each wed for asynchronous learning (choose what you study that hour). Program sends you to SAEM 1st year, Scientific Assembly 3rd year. Sounds like many of their lectures are taught by other residents rather than faculty, but that is changing and the new PD is bringing in more faculty to lecture.

Research/Fellowships:
-EMS, Ultrasound. Big stroke center, also cardiovascular and trauma research.

Faculty:
Supportive of residents, help with career and fellowship positions.

Overall:
Solid EM program in busy medical center, good mix of university/county hospitals. Not as many resources as other residency programs in terms of support for international interests.
 
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This review is by a user who interviewed at this residency and wishes to remain anonymous.

Hospitals:
• Memorial Hermann TMC (University)-main teaching hospital
• Children’s Memorial Hermann-pediatric rotations
• LBJ (public)-OB/GYN month and some ED months.
• Texas Children’s Hospital-peds ED 2nd year
• Methodist Willowbrook (community)- in NW houston, community ED rotation 3rd year

Resident Life:

-Vacay: 2 weeks 1st year + 5 days either around Christmas or New Years, 3 weeks 2nd yr and up.
-Hours: 21 12’s 1st year, 19 12’s 2nd year, 16 12’s 3rd year.
-Culture: Residents seem genuinely happy, feel well-prepared with all but pediatrics. No turf-wars with surgery. Trauma domain: clavicles up for Level 1, everything for Level 2 and below. Faculty and Dr. Luber very receptive to changes in the curriculum, chiefs open to changing schedule. Can moonlight after Jan PGY2 year, several opportunities available.
-Living: low COL in Houston, can live close to main hospital.

Clinical Curriculum:
-3 year program, 5 ICU months (only 1 intern year), 2 elective months, no research or administrative time built-in. Good mix of patients (insured and indigent). Gets all life-flight in Houston (anything from outside the loop that needs to be flown in), lots of blunt trauma. MH-TMC split into Trauma, Medicine and Peds work areas. Main ED only sees 60K per year (that’s adults and peds combined) but very busy trauma center with 28% admission rate (excluding obs). LBJ is a level 3 hospital, but sees tons of bread & butter type pathology. Peds experience is a little weak in that residents on average only have 1 peds shift/month during ED months, 2 dedicated months over the entire residency. In terms of international opportunities, there are faculty have spent time in New Zealand, St. Lucia, India but that’s all on their own time. There is no program funding for residents to travel internationally and unless you get your own source of funding, will only be able to travel on vacation time or take unpaid leave (including paying your own health insurance). Newly implemented 1 month of US PGY1, with opportunity for electives in other years. Two U/S trained faculty.

Didactics:
-Wed AM protected time, 4 hrs lecture and 1 hr each wed for asynchronous learning (choose what you study that hour). Program sends you to SAEM 1st year, Scientific Assembly 3rd year. Sounds like many of their lectures are taught by other residents rather than faculty, but that is changing and the new PD is bringing in more faculty to lecture.

Research/Fellowships:
-EMS, Ultrasound. Big stroke center, also cardiovascular and trauma research.

Faculty:
Supportive of residents, help with career and fellowship positions.

Overall:
Solid EM program in busy medical center, good mix of university/county hospitals. Not as many resources as other residency programs in terms of support for international interests.


Just wanted clarify some above details

1st year is 18, 12 hour shifts and 1, 10 hour ems shift
2cd year is 18, 12 hour shifts
3rd year is 15, 12 hour shifts and 1 8 hour swing shift

In addition to our two dedicated pediatric ed months and our picu month. we also do 1-3 pedi shifts per month. Major pediatric trauma is seen on every trauma shift in the trauma area. We also get pediatrics on the medicine side when pedi gets full so we get more pedi experience than just what was written above.
 
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Overall: (UT-Houtson)
Solid EM program in busy medical center, good mix of university/county hospitals. Not as many resources as other residency programs in terms of support for international interests.

What resourses are lacking, and what are "international interests"?
 
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Can anyone comment on how hard it is to get an interview at UT Houston for an out of state medical student? I'm from Houston originally and would love to return, but am wondering if out of state students get the same consideration. It seems like most of the residents are from Texas schools...
 
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Can anyone comment on how hard it is to get an interview at UT Houston for an out of state medical student? I'm from Houston originally and would love to return, but am wondering if out of state students get the same consideration. It seems like most of the residents are from Texas schools...

Out of state applicants get the same consideration. You can also check out their new webpage www.emhouston.org for more information- particularly the FAQs.

The reason most of the residents are from TX schools is b/c they would naturally like to be closer to home so they rank the program higher than other prospective locations. If you have ties to Houston or just really want an interview consider doing an away rotation or just email Dr. Luber and tell him your interests.
 
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Can anyone comment on how hard it is to get an interview at UT Houston for an out of state medical student? I'm from Houston originally and would love to return, but am wondering if out of state students get the same consideration. It seems like most of the residents are from Texas schools...

I go to school in Boston and have ties to the Houston area, so I just emailed and asked for an interview. They were pretty responsive. I don't know how many interview dates they may have left though.
 
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UT houston just got "approved" to increase in size from 18 to 21 resident class. The PD informed us that they wont anounce it untll they have the funds set up for 3 more residents over the next 3 years. If this does go through then the 12 hours shifts they work at one of their sites would go down to 8 hr shifts. Huge plus IMO.
 
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UT houston just got "approved" to increase in size from 18 to 21 resident class. The PD informed us that they wont anounce it untll they have the funds set up for 3 more residents over the next 3 years. If this does go through then the 12 hours shifts they work at one of their sites would go down to 8 hr shifts. Huge plus IMO.
Of course if it doesn't happen for 3 more years it wouldn't really affect any of us.
 
This is, in my (biased) opinion, a vastly underrated program. If anybody has any questions, you can PM me.
 
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Any word about whether the program decided to bump the class size from 18 to 21? We were told at our interview that they would let us know at the end of January.
 
Are they still doing 12 hour shifts? If so, that's kinda brutal, but certainly not a deal breaker in a otherwise great program


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I believe they are still doing 12 hour shifts. If I recall it's 18 12's per month. Which is pretty brutal. Especially considering some programs I interviewed at are doing 18 10's per month. Still, it's a great program.
 
I believe they are still doing 12 hour shifts. If I recall it's 18 12's per month. Which is pretty brutal. Especially considering some programs I interviewed at are doing 18 10's per month. Still, it's a great program.

If they are (and with extra residents I could see them changing this) it's 12s at the level I trauma center, Memorial Hermann, and 8s at the county hospital, LBJ. So there's a nice mix. Many jobs in the community have 12 hour shifts so it's nice to see what works for you, and fewer shifts per month and helps you see more patients than you would in other three year programs that would do 8s.

It is definitely a great program.
 
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Hey guys. I've been on the site but made a new profile for anonymity. I'm a 4th year going into EM and I found these threads so incredibly helpful that I want to help contribute to keeping them up to date.

I rotated at UT Houston and these are my notes on my time there:

Residents: Large program. 54 residents total and possibly increasing next year. The residents were super cool. One of the best parts of the program, honestly. They seem to get along well, have fun together, and know each other personally (i.e. hang out outside of work). Many of them were young which is important to me (since I am too). I've been to other large programs where the personalities are so different that I ended up loving some of them and hating the others but that really wasn't the case here.

Locations: Residents split their time between Memorial Hermann (large, private hospital in the Med Center) and LBJ (the county hospital 20-ish minutes away). Although most of their time is spent at Hermann. I really just don't think I'm a private hospital kind of person because I really didn't like the patient population at Hermann. They're all insured, slightly entitled people who are already plugged into the system. If that's your thing, you'll probably love it! The county population at LBJ is largely spanish-speaking only so take that into account although they have fairly good translation services

Schedule: Residents are now working 8 hr shifts at Hermann during the week and 12s on weekends. All 8s at LBJ. I thought that was a fair schedule. I forgot how many shifts per month (doesn't really matter to me).

The Department: probably my biggest beef with this program was their role (or lack of one) in the ED. The department is broken up into a Trauma pod and a Medicine pod. On the trauma side, if there are any traumas (which they have plenty of), EM plays minimal role in the care of those patients and it mostly goes to trauma surgery. EM gets airway like always but trauma surgery gets everything else. There was talk of a policy where trauma will give EM stable chest tubes if EM gives them stable airways but I didn't actually see that happen. I saw numerous instances of trauma getting mad at EM for doing their own chest tubes. Very bizarre. And other than trauma, they tend to consult out a lot of things they could do themselves (i.e. reductions come to mind). In their defense, they see a ton of patients and it's easier to move on to the next one if you give lengthy procedures to someone else but what's the point of seeing all these patients if you don't really fully take care of them?? That's my position at least. It just felt like a lot of phone calls and not a lot of action
On a positive note, their residents are comfortable taking care of very sick patients. I saw a 2nd year resident take care of a pt developing septic shock right before our eyes and didn't even need to call for attending backup. It was impressive.

Overall: overall, I thought the program was solid. I would leave there being a pretty good doctor. The patient population isn't my cup of tea as I'm more of an underserved, uninsured type of person. But there's no shortage of pathology and intelligent colleagues to work with. I love that the interns are thrown in and have to sort of find their way (with adequate supervision of course) because that's how I learn best. I would prefer to be somewhere where the ED has more command over their patients -- trauma or otherwise -- and does most of their own procedures. But it's a solid program and I'll definitely rank them.
 
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Great job with the reviews EmergMed2017.

Agree with most of the above. UT Houston was initially near the top of my list but fell out of the top 10 after I did more research on the program and talked to some faculty/residents. They love to advertise that they see tons of trauma and are the busiest trauma center in the US but that designation means nothing if surgery residents are managing all the patients and doing all the procedures. In addition they are very academic with every subspecialty imaginable and it ends up being consult city as a result.

If you like managing your own patients and doing your own procedures this probably isn't a good fit regardless of whatever statistics they like to throw around on interview day.
Now that being said its a very solid program with great pathology, teaching, and research.
 
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For those who did their away here, interviewed here, or actually went here/are now here for EM residency, how competitive would you say the program is now? The posts in this thread so far run a decade from 2006 to 2016, and some changes in the program over time (shift length, exposure, etc.) are reflected in this.
‘Now in 2019 going into 2020, how does the program look for a prosective applicant looking to do an away here and possibly rank it if offered an interview? Is this a place that isn’t going to look at anyone with a <240 Step 1, is it an average program with respect to difficulty in securing a rank, or is it relatively easy to match here as an average-scoring student with a very strong interest in EM and very favorable dean’s letter comments? Any thoughts or information would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

TL;DR: How competitive is this program today?
 
I don't think you're going to get the specific answers that you want. I interviewed there within the past five years. Clinically, it's an incredibly strong program. You see crap at the Texas Medical Center that you won't see anywhere else. Trauma? You'll be drowning in it.

I doubt you're going to get answers about Step scores. I doubt they have a 240 cut-off. I imagine the look for ties to the region as the Texas market has a strong regional pull (similar to California), but it's not impossible.

National reputation? Middle tier. It's an amazing place to train that's on the rise. I put it up against UTSW as the best-regarded program in Texas, and only because UTSW has been around longer (I think) and has a stronger institutional name as a whole.
 
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I trained here. Obviously biased.

It was my #1 because I felt that far and away this was one of the most bang for your buck programs out there. It was incredibly down to earth, non-malignant, and freedom giving (tons of autonomy, moonlighting, etc.) without compromising the actual quality of the education. I've only gone to one residency, and everyone loves to pump up their program, but I came out of here feeling very competent. I still marvel at the existence of four year programs because if you go to a residency like this, there is absolutely no need for a fourth year.

I have no idea what the range of step scores there were. Mine was ~240 in 2014.
 
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I interviewed here. I had it higher than the program where i matched, so i didn't match here.

My stats were 240s step 1. 260s step 2. Top quartile from a highly regarded Texas school that may or may not have been mentioned in a couple posts above :p

I'm not sure what happened during the match honestly :p I was surprised :p my dream of Harvard was also crushed slightly that day :p :p i ended up matching at a place that was great anyway, so regardless of where you go, it all works out.
 
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I'm an intern at UT Houston, ranked it number 2 between here and UTSW for 1 and I am super happy I am here. Everyone is supportive, incredible pathology, super NOT malignant, really cool faculty, very reasonable work hours(I think my avg this month was 184 hours over 20 shifts). If you are interested you can see my list on last years rank list-just look for the guy with UTSW, UT Houston as their first two on their rank list and that is me. I rotated here and I thought the clinical experience and faculty were incredible and I have not been disappointed upon arriving here. One thing I will say as an update is that since the new program director took over a couple of years back, he's recruited a lot of really cool new faculty. My step 1 score was in the 210s and my step 2 was in the 250s and I had probably above average SLOEs (but not jaw dropping), and above average third year grades. Im pretty sure my step 1 score is lower than what they would be looking for but I rotated here and gave them the ole razzle dazzle. Houston is a fun city, the food is beyond dank, my coresidents are cool people. Come interview. Also for reference, I dont stalk SDN or anything but one of the away rotators was telling me they read weird things about the review of this place on SDN so I looked it up and felt I needed to add my two cents even though ive been here like 3 months. Feel free to message me or comment below.
 
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