Cedars-Sinai
Only chose to interview here out of curiosity. Probably made a bad impression by not knowing that it was a categorical program. My only west coast interview where I saw FMGs interviewing. This program has distinctively strong pros and similarly strong cons. History of the program: Cedars is a private hospital that has been a site for rotations in cardiac and ob for neighboring programs for a long time. Many anesthesiologists were interested in teaching and there was talk of making a residency for a while. The death of Killer King accelerated this process. About 40-50 of the 100+ anesthesiologists chose to become faculty; because there is no research they are all doing this because of their desire to teach (or get cheap labor?). Excellent cases in all areas, and because there are so many more cases going on than anesthesia residents, they do really interesting stuff daily. I loved the private practice vibe, but it sounded to me that residents do get rushed as a result. Probably for the best in the end. Limited resident autonomy for the same reasons, probably not for the best in the end. The attendings here are really cool and have all sorts of things going on in their lives outside the OR (much like the private guys on this forum!). Attendings here are hot shots and very well connected and the residents seem to be landing very good fellowships through these connections. However, attendings (off the record) and rotating med students agree that the current residents from MLK, especially the CA-3s, are very weak. I am concerned that they will lower the reputation of this program for a while although I think that 10 years down the road this will be a very competitive program. I did not like the PD. Very limited research opportunities, obviously. There is talk of a pain fellowship soon. 2 hours of protected didactic time daily! But mainly run by residents without the attendings. I would rather come here than scramble, and I may even rank it above USC. If you have low numbers but are looking for a program in SoCal, I encourage you to check it out. I would love to work here when I finish training.
I am a CA2 at the new Cedars Sinai program and I want to clear up some issues that were presented in this last posting. First of all, our new program actually began on July 1,2007 so our CA2s, and CA3s are currently the remnants of the MLK-Drew Anesthesiology residency. When King Drew Med Ctr. Closed on 11/30/6, we were all moved to Cedars Sinai (as our program had been integrated with Cedars Sinai in earlier in 2006). Our residents have been working at Cedars Sinai since 12/1/06 and our clinical experience, while inherently greatly improved from MLK, has been evolving for the better. We have had 4 residents that graduated this integrated Drew-Cedars program in June 07. Through an endless amount of work from our program director, our chairman, faculty, and program coordinator the Cedars Sinai Anesthesiology program was born on July 1,2006. Of note, as Cedars is a very busy surgical hospital, rotators from hospital such as UCI, UCLA, Riverside County Anesthesia programs have been rotating at Cedars for many years.
It is correct that approximately 45-50 anesthesiologist attending are part of our academic faculty, and there are approximately 85 anesthetizing locations running during an average day. The faculty work with residents in a 1:1 ratio. Thus, there is usually somewhat of a surplus of attendings that are not assigned residents, and it is not uncommon for residents to choose which cases they work the next day. We look up our patients the night before, and call our respective attending as most programs do, and we set up the rooms at 6AM and cases usually start at 7:15AM. Every day, we get at least 2 hours of protected didactic time in which our attending let us out of the rooms at 3:30PM. At that point, we have keywords, board reviews, oral board reviews, or case presentations for 2 hours. Wednesdays are different in that there is 6:45AM lecture (either Grand Rounds, M&M, or cardiac presentation, or resident presentation . Moreover, we have Journal Club presentations on the first Wednesday of each month. It seems as if all the didactics is working as my class as a whole scored in the 80th percentile for our post CA1 inservice. In fact one person would've passed the test if he/she was taking it for real.
There are certain aspects of a private practice that are extremely beneficial for us as residents. The cases for the most parts are done by attending surgeons (there are gen surg residents, and multiple specialty fellowships) so the surgeries tend to be quick from incision to closure.For instance, it is not uncommon for 1 surgeon to do 6 hip replacements before 3PM, which is good for anesthesia residents because with more cases come more procedures with less waiting time. In terms of autonomy, I will admit because of the 1:1 attending to resident ratio most attending will be present for more of the case compared with other programs. A resident will learn more when an attending explains the inns and outs of the case, compared to a resident who's attending is only present for the intubation and extubation (and the resident runs the case the same as a CA3, as he did as a CA1). Another positive of our program is our faculty is highly diverse and will approach situations differently and thus we as residents take on a wide arsenal of approaching different situations such as difficult airways. Furthermore, we schedule our more senior residents with attendings that tend to leave the room for most of the case. For example, our attendings leave their rooms to interview applicants for our program.
When it comes to research, THERE ARE MULTIPLE RESEARCH OPPURTUNITIES at Cedars. There are multiple studies currently taking place that residents are participating in. Residents have the opportunity to start a project from IRB application, or to join an ongoing study. There are even options for doing bench research.
We do interview and rank FMGs. We do not discriminate applicants based on their backgrounds. We simply wish to select the most competent, versatile, mature applicants, regardless of their backgrounds, or nationality.
In terms of resident competence, there will always be some residents stronger than others. As we do have rotators coming to our program, I can honestly say that overall, our residents are comparable to other local programs. I myself am completely comfortable running most of my cases as a CA2 halfway done. We have the opportunity to do many procedures. For example, in the past six months,I have done over 60 a lines, and 50 fiberoptic intubations, (our program stresses the use of fiberoptic bronchoscopes for difficult intubations). Furthermore, residents average 7-10 epidurals/spinals per 24 hour call during OB. The one area that our numbers are probably lower than other programs is central lines (as it is a private practice). We still are ok with our numbers as we have the opportunity to put in a lot of central lines when we are on cardiac/liver/neuro cases, or in the ICU. Speaking of the ICU. Our ICU rotation is in the Cardiac Surgical ICU where the intensivist is an anesthesiologist. The ICU resident works 6A-6P from Mon-Fri, and rounds on Sat,but does NOT take calls. Coverage from 6P-6A is by the residents on Cardiac Anesthesia rotations (call usually q5). The goal is to learn the management of these complicated patients not only intra-operatively, but also postoperatively when they can be most critical.
Last, but not least, our Academic Chairman, Dr Wender, and our Program Director, Dr Yumul have open door policies for residents with any issues. If a resident has an issue with anything but wishes to remain anonymous, there is a suggestion box that is frequently checked . If there are issues with an attending, that attending is simply taken off of academic faculty.There is also a great deal of evolution (highly influenced by residents) and commitment in our program, I think it is a good sign that the Cedars GME has sponsored a substantial amount for renovating our Anesthesia Resident Department Space (Not to mention the large amount of space the hospital has given us for conference room, offices, library, resident lounge,etc. ) All in all,from the countless lectures, board reviews, keyword sessions, oral board prep, endless nights of paperwork, and the moving of the program to Cedars, Dr Wender and Dr Yumul have done more for our careers than anyone will ever know. And that amount of dedication is what I believe you should want from your chairman and program director. Hopefully, I cleared up some issues/questions about our program, but please feel free to PM if you have further questions.
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