UT Southwestern Chairman resigns

Started by hoboken
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hoboken

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Does Any one know the whole story of what is really happening at UT Southwestern, Dallas, TX?


From department Web site;

On June 6, 2006, William E. Johnston, M.D. resigned as Chairman of the Department after more than 4½ years of dedicated service. Dr. Johnston led the Department through a tremendous period of growth and his leadership will surely be missed. Dr. Johnston retains the Margaret Milam McDermott Distinguished Chair in Anesthesiology and Pain Management. Dr. Johnston, who is fellowship trained in cardiac anesthesiology and boarded in critical care medicine, is representing the Department at UT Southwestern University Hospital-St. Paul providing cardiovascular anesthesiology.
 
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New chairman may be working on Anesthesiology department?

From web site;
John D. McConnell, M.D., Executive Vice President for Health System Affairs and the former chairman of Urology at UT Southwestern, has been appointed as Interim Chair of Anesthesiology and Pain Management.
 
New chairman may be working on Anesthesiology department to merge with Urology department for a new 5 year combined residency?

From web site;
John D. McConnell, M.D., Executive Vice President for Health System Affairs and the former chairman of Urology at UT Southwestern, has been appointed as Interim Chair of Anesthesiology and Pain Management.

so, you're saying they got rid of one dick, and then went and put a new one in his place.
 
New chairman may be working on Anesthesiology department to merge with Urology department for a new 5 year combined residency?

From web site;
John D. McConnell, M.D., Executive Vice President for Health System Affairs and the former chairman of Urology at UT Southwestern, has been appointed as Interim Chair of Anesthesiology and Pain Management.

Horse****.
 
joke.

(i personally know nothing about ut southwestern's program, nor do i really care about it. i'm an east coaster through and through. so, whatever happens there is of no particular interest to me, except that i occassionally like to respond to silly gossip and hearsay on internet forums.)
 

No worries, I for one got your joke, as well as the one you responded to. I thought I'd throw my own in to keep it going. I just didn't understand UTSW's irritation. It seemed as though he truly needed to put to rest the theory that there might be a combined Uro/Anes program.

btw...UTSW apparently knows the reason this is happening, but hasn't shared. What's with the teaser?
 
No worries, I for one got your joke, as well as the one you responded to. I thought I'd throw my own in to keep it going. I just didn't understand UTSW's irritation. It seemed as though he truly needed to put to rest the theory that there might be a combined Uro/Anes program.

btw...UTSW apparently knows the reason this is happening, but hasn't shared. What's with the teaser?

Just trying to clear up the fact from fiction.
 
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Whoa this is totally unexpected! I interviewed with Dr. Johnston last year, he seemed to be a down to earth, upbeat, nice person who was a true advocate for the program. every resident seemed to speak highly of him. Wasn't he the PD too? Who is going to be the new PD? I didn't realize there was that much politics behind the scenes so as to force a resignation. I actually really enjoyed my interview experience there overall. Sad to hear about the change. 🙁
 
Whoa this is totally unexpected! I interviewed with Dr. Johnston last year, he seemed to be a down to earth, upbeat, nice person who was a true advocate for the program. every resident seemed to speak highly of him. Wasn't he the PD too? Who is going to be the new PD? I didn't realize there was that much politics behind the scenes so as to force a resignation. I actually really enjoyed my interview experience there overall. Sad to hear about the change. 🙁

Charles Whitten was and still is the program director.
 
Too bad to hear about Dr. Johnston resigning. I think this is a huge loss for the program and for the residents still there.
I enjoyed my rotation down there with him. He pimped a lot, told good stories about his fishing and machine gunning adventures, was an overall cool guy, and SMART. Definitely seemed like he was running the show.
Dr. Griffin would have my vote as chair! 🙂
 
Ya got 20 posts on this thread and not one tells why the mofu is resigning-- What gives? Don't get all piano-handed on me now. ---Zip
 
Ya got 20 posts on this thread and not one tells why the mofu is resigning-- What gives? Don't get all piano-handed on me now. ---Zip

Resigned or resigned under pressure depending on who you ask. It's a political mess that is hurting the program.


I am with Zippy, can someone tell us, what is going on at UT Southwestern?

------------------

I don't know the answer to those questions, but I know better than to ask.
 
Ya got 20 posts on this thread and not one tells why the mofu is resigning-- What gives? Don't get all piano-handed on me now. ---Zip


Zipster......I've got to ask since I've seen you use it several times:

What the hell does "piano-handed" mean?😕
 
"Piano-handed" is an old Southern term that implies soft,delicate, fragile, sensitive like the hands from a concert pianist. Now contrast that with the hands of say a plumber or concrete block mason-- strong, powerful, rough. You probably won't find that in a dictionary but hey, what the hell it had a nice ring to it. Regards, ---Zippy
 
"Piano-handed" is an old Southern term that implies soft,delicate, fragile, sensitive like the hands from a concert pianist. Now contrast that with the hands of say a plumber or concrete block mason-- strong, powerful, rough. You probably won't find that in a dictionary but hey, what the hell it had a nice ring to it. Regards, ---Zippy

....or an orthopedic surgeon...
 
I am currently a resident at UTSW and let me tell you folks the whole story. Dr. Johnston resigned because of his differences with the hospital administration. He hired bunch of top notch researchers for the department and was very aggressive in starting new fellowships or expanding the current ones (We have more spots for peds/ob-gyn/pain and new CV fellowship this year). Somehow, departments financial statements became red last year and thats when the fight started. Administartion wanted him to cut research positions, trim the department to cut the losses. He came to UTSW to make this program stellar and this directly conflicted with his vision. He decided to step down because he could not convince the administartion and at the same time did not wanted the department to suffer under his leadership.
This is what I know. If there is anything else out there, I am not aware of it. He let go the chair position but he is still around as a practicing CV anesthesiologist in the UTSW system, at St. Paul hospital and comes for lectures and grand rounds. Dr. Whitten and other people in the department are very smart people and making every effort to turn around things without any compromise. Dr. Whitten has assured us multiple times that nothing will come in the way of resident education. I personally believe that nothing has changed in the department. This is a very stable department with excellent teaching faculty. One person left to make extra dough in the private practice (pain) but he is already making efforts to come back.
I am not biased with my views and this is in brief what I know.
 
I am currently a resident at UTSW and let me tell you folks the whole story. Dr. Johnston resigned because of his differences with the hospital administration. He hired bunch of top notch researchers for the department and was very aggressive in starting new fellowships or expanding the current ones (We have more spots for peds/ob-gyn/pain and new CV fellowship this year). Somehow, departments financial statements became red last year and thats when the fight started. Administartion wanted him to cut research positions, trim the department to cut the losses. He came to UTSW to make this program stellar and this directly conflicted with his vision. He decided to step down because he could not convince the administartion and at the same time did not wanted the department to suffer under his leadership.
This is what I know. If there is anything else out there, I am not aware of it. He let go the chair position but he is still around as a practicing CV anesthesiologist in the UTSW system, at St. Paul hospital and comes for lectures and grand rounds. Dr. Whitten and other people in the department are very smart people and making every effort to turn around things without any compromise. Dr. Whitten has assured us multiple times that nothing will come in the way of resident education. I personally believe that nothing has changed in the department. This is a very stable department with excellent teaching faculty. One person left to make extra dough in the private practice (pain) but he is already making efforts to come back.
I am not biased with my views and this is in brief what I know.
 
I am currently a resident at UTSW and let me tell you folks the whole story.

This is what I know. If there is anything else out there, I am not aware of it.

I am not biased with my views and this is in brief what I know.

That must be the ex chairman himself?

You know what's going on why don't you tells us the real story?
 
There is a faculty member at my institution who came from UTSW a few years ago as well as having trained there and has mentioned to me that people are jumping ship left and right. I respect this faculty member quite a bit, and given his integrity I doubt he would just blow smoke or give advice based on sour grapes. In fact, his advice to me (good, I think, for any program you are looking at) was to apply and go look - but look closely.
 
There aren't mass defections. Of note, it appears that the position hasn't been filled because the dean's position has yet to be filled and admin doesn't want to hire department chairs before having a new dean in place. That would seem to make some sense.

Otherwise, I have not heard about people jumping off the boat. There is concern, but McConnell appears to be taking a hands off approach, which is the appropriate thing to do.
 
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