I am also an east-coaster looking at western programs. If anyone has info about UC Davis, UC Irvine, Loma Linda, or Stanford, I would really appreciate it. Specifically, I would like to hear about the locations... Is Palo Alto too far from SF to live in the city? Are UCI & LL in rural areas? Also, what are the reputations of these programs? County vs. community? Solid programs?
Irvine and Loma Linda are both urban areas, but if you are thinking downtown [insert name of big city here] then, they are not like that. Southern California is a bit difficult to describe - nothing is quite like it - it all urban sprawl from throughout the entire valley basin, from the coast until like 75-80 miles inland.
Irvine is in Orange County and a relatively nice place to live, but pretty expensive - don't know much more about UCI than it happens to NOT be rural.
Loma Linda sits between Riverside to the SW and San Bernadino to the North right on the 10, ~ 65 east of the coast and ~55 miles east of downtown L.A. It's not rural, although the strange California mindset of those in LA or Orange County might make a case that LL is in the Urban version of "rural" - whatever that means. The areas immediately around LL and the next city to the east Redlands are both nice places to live, cheaper than Irvine, def more expensive that most of just about anywhere in country. It is the only level 1 Trauma center between Vegas and USC, and almost all of the area's horrible Traumas go there (San Bernadino County's hopsital is ~ 10 miles west, level 2 Trauma I believe, mostly D.O. affiliated and last I knew LL did not rotate there, they get their share of Trauma too - plenty of car wrecks to go around, believe me). Responsibility for stabilization of trauma patients entering the ED is shared with G-surg, with both EM and G-Surg taking shifts. San Bernadino is a pretty tough city (COPS is often filmed there) and you will see your share of GSW's and knife fight's. Loma Linda is not a county hospital itself, but it might as well be, because they do not turn anyone away, and trauma happens to the rich and the poor. It would not be entirely rare to see a trauma, a gunshot, a septic patient, an MI, a stroke, all in one shift (as well as the gambit of lower accuity issues common to ED's). LL also has a dedicated Pediatric ED - you'll see adults on adult months, and kids on kid months. You will also spend time at River County Regeion Medical Center (county hospital) - level 2 Trauma, very busy, indigent population for sure, closest county hospital to the US/Mexican border in SoCal (do the math). Seemed to be a lot of research going on, if that is an interest. I can't speak to reputation, but LL appears to be a more than a solid program for the clinical training of an emergency physcian.
