A Psychiatry residency in San Francisco (CPMC)

[ZigPig]

I am a psychiatry resident at California Pacific Medical Center, in San Francisco. It is an awesome place to be. We are working on updating our website. We are a small program, and there are not is not a lot of information about us out there. I wanted to make sure we had a presence in this forum, and make sure people know about us. Feel free to PM me with questions.

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[Wyvernrider]

I was really hoping for an opportunity to interview at CPMC and meet the department, but I guess my pending Step 2 score and no California connections filtered me out. I guess the season isn't over yet!

 

[ZigPig]

I am not involved in process of filtering applicants, so I can't comment on step 2 scores or California connections. Running through my head though, most of us are not from California, and I don't think most of us have a very strong connection.

 

[ZigPig]

I have had an awesome experience with CPMC. I am happy to be here. We have a new PD (I didn't know the old PD), who I think is making some positive changes to the program. I enjoy my colleagues. I feel like my load is light enough that I can educate myself, rather than feeling like my entire role here is service. For example, on the inpatient psych unit, interns had a cap of 3 patients last year. Now the cap is 4. I think there are some psych residencies where you would be regularly seeing 10+ as an intern, and you are just busting your butt, without any time to actually learn about a case.

 

[Mr. Taco]

Thanks so much for the info zigpig! Obviously, San Francisco is quite an expensive place to live- are there many residents in your program who moved to SF with no spouse/savings/parental support who are able to afford to live within a reasonable commuting distance? Also, are there many moonlighting opportunities to help with the cost of living?
Thanks!

 

[ZigPig]

I don't have a spouse / savings / parental support, and I live a 7 minute walk from the hospital. It is a little studio... but I made it happen. Yeah, I feel a little poor right now, but I cover my expenses. I feel like I really can't complain, since I am single living in an awesome city (and I have the time to enjoy it), and I didn't expect to be making $$$ while in residency. There are two others that are closer walking distance than me (we are all in the Pacific Heights neighborhood), and I don't know the extent that parental support may play a roll. I know of two others in walking distance, they have spouses, I don't know their financial situation... as I go through the people in my head, I really don't truly know the financial situation of anyone, it just be a guess. CPMC is in Pacific Heights. If you look at a map, there are people living in the Tender Knob, Richmond (the neighborhood, not the city), Presidio, Laurel Heights, Sausalito, Berkeley, Oakland.

People can moonlight nearby. Alta Bates in Oakland, a place in San Leandro, I think once upon a time someone did SFGH, I hear there are two other places people have recently moonlighted at.

 

[Platypus_Lover]

Thanks for all the info! I'm interested in psychiatry programs on the west coast, namely UCSF and CPMC, and was wondering if you could speak on any of the differences between these two programs. Also, I was wondering if CPMC had a similar housing allowance as UCSF to help offset some of the cost of living.

 

[ZigPig]

Thanks for all the info! I'm interested in psychiatry programs on the west coast, namely UCSF and CPMC, and was wondering if you could speak on any of the differences between these two programs. Also, I was wondering if CPMC had a similar housing allowance as UCSF to help offset some of the cost of living.

There is no housing allowance, but I have heard GME is looking into it, so this may change in the future. I don't know too much about the UCSF residency program. There were a couple of events that I could have mingled with some of their residents, but I had not gone to those yet. I know UCSF is a fairly large program, compared to our 4 per class program. One of our attendings is from UCSF, one that just left was from UCSF, one of our residents went to UCSF for med school, and we have had some speakers from UCSF come to our grand rounds. So there is some communication, but for me as a resident, I have limited knowledge of what goes on over there. If you have a specific question about CPMC I can answer that, but I don't know residents at UCSF to give a honest comparison, and I would rather not disseminate assumptions.

 

[notdeadyet]

There's not a lot of cross-pollination at the resident level between CPMC and UCSF. Every now and then there is s mix that folks try to organize (with Stanford included too), but they haven't really taken hold.

UCSF and CPMC mostly have San Francisco in common. Other than that, they are quite different programs. UCSF lives up to some but not all of the stereotypes of a large academic program as CPMC seems to live up to some but not all of the ones for a smaller community-oriented program.

That said, UCSF is more underserved focused than a lot of academic places. CPMC also has the reputation for having a a good didactic program and teaching-oriented faculty for a program of its size. I don't know the old PD but I know the new one pretty well and he is awesome and and I think he'll do great things to continue the academic bent of the program.

When folks ask me about Bay Area programs, I typically tell them that:

UCSF- very strong academic program, lots of a research possibilities, fellowships in everything, great therapy training. But it's a big program, lots of busy call, and you will be worked hard. Great for the applicant who wants to be able to specialize in anything, is willing to work very hard and is going to speak up and not worry about getting lost in the shuffle.
CPMC- good didactics/academics for a small program, great faculty, very manageable call/workload. Small residency (which has +/-'s) and patient population skews more towards the insured. The graduates are well-respected. Excellent choice for the applicant who wants great training in a smaller environment and really wants the work/life balance to be a real thing.
Stanford- somewhere between UCSF and CPMC in terms of workload and reputation for academics, closer to UCSF size, closer to CPMC patient demographic.
San Mateo- CPMC size and feel, but with MUCH more focus on the underserved/uninsured. Best work/life balance of any program on the west coast, maybe the country.

 

[ZigPig]

...
CPMC also has the reputation for having a a good didactic program and teaching-oriented faculty for a program of its size. I don't know the old PD but I know the new one pretty well and he is awesome and and I think he'll do great things to continue the academic bent of the program.
...
CPMC- good didactics/academics for a small program, great faculty, very manageable call/workload. Small residency (which has +/-'s) and patient population skews more towards the insured. The graduates are well-respected. Excellent choice for the applicant who wants great training in a smaller environment and really wants the work/life balance to be a real thing.
...

Thank you notdeadyet, a comparison much better said than I can personally comment on. I agree with what was said about CPMC. Our new PD (this is year 2) is great, I like him a lot. I think he is making good changes to the program.

Yes, there is definitely a payor mix that includes a lot of insured patients. I have been told that once upon a time, CPMC had a reputation of being a boutique inpatient unit, and many residents would graduate and would become cash only psychoanalysts. I don't have data to back that up. With the decrease in inpatient beds in the community, and various changes in insurance payments and requirements etc, the role of CPMC had changed. Learning therapy is still an important part of the residency program. I think we still see patient mix on the inpatient unit that is better off financially / functionally than I have seen in other places [that I have seen in my long PGY-2 psychiatric career].