UMKC Program

I rotated there last year and one of guys from my medical school is a resident there now. When I rotated there, the residents were openly not happy with the program. The chair, Dr. Hamilton, is openly malignant, or "old school", as puts it. While I was there, he was pretty rough on the residents in clinic, in the OR, & during the morning sessions where they run through the cases that came in the day before. He isn't always like that and not with every resident. There were times he was down right pleasant, but he was malignant a good part of the time. I can't speak for the other sites or other faculty since I spent almost all of my time around him. I hear they have a few new faculty, so it might be different. From what the residents said, the other sites are much more friendly.

I spoke with the guy from my school and he said that is "just how it is" and that "you get used to it." I haven't spoke to him in a while, but he said he and several other residents don't really like it there, but it isn't as bad as people make it out to be. Furthermore, he said Dr. Hamilton is not exactly "up-to-date" on most of his medical knowledge and that he felt that overall, surgical training was lacking at UMKC. I'm note sure in what aspects though.

I don't know how it was during this interview session, but when I interviewed last year, he gave a "fire & brimstone" speech about how the program is rough and if you can't handle it, then you shouldn't rank them. I commend the guy for being open and honest, but it also sounded liek he was trying to justify why he has a bad reputation and why some of the residents may not be happy there. In my opinion, if you have to give excuses about your program on interview day, there is something wrong.

Overall, I don't know if the program is as bad as some people make it out to be, but there is definitely room for improvement. I didn't even rank them last year and am happy at the place I landed.

Hope this helps.

Hamilton flat out said "I'm the asshole you read about on Orthogate" when I interviewed there.

lol that is classic.

Case in point, why in the hell would you want to put up with that for 5 years. It's not even a good program.

My advice is, go where you will get great surgical training, will be respected, and will have an enjoyable residency. Trust me, you will work your butt off no matter where you go, but if you are somewhere you enjoy, it will be a great experience.

I'm not sure if he still does this or not, but when I interviewed, he tried to tell us to NOT rank more competitive programs because it would only hurt us. Then he said he would call us to tell us if we were ranked to match and then urged us to rank them higher because it could mean the difference between getting into ortho or not. This a bold face lie to con applicants into ranking them higher than they would otherwise. Don't fall for it. That isn't how the Match is set up.

That's pretty harsh bonehead. I do remember him saying "I'm the asshole from orthogate" though. He did talk about the Match and how you can screw yourself if you rank competitive programs though. That didn't sound right. I asked my advisor about that and he said that's not how it works. It's set up to match residents with the highest program they ranked in, regardless of how low you ranked them.

I got the call about them ranking me, but I don't think I'm going to let that influence my decision. Does anyone else have a perspective on the UMKC program?

Thanks for your insight.

I got the same "don't rank any competitive places high on your list because it hurts your chances of matching". This doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. I went out of my way to say that was simply not true if you look at how the match is carried out....I would not advise you do this in an interview. Classic.

As a current UMKC resident I can say much, not all, of the above about our program has been true, unfortunately. There are also a few negative reviews about our program from rotators that emphasize what have been our weaknesses. Any ortho program has its negative side, though admittedly ours has been a little more negative than most. Much, if not all, of the problem has been blamed in reviews and other emails on our program director, Hamilton. Not as many have mentioned Chuinard, the other reason. In Hamilton's defense, he does not pretend to be a cuddly guy like some residents out there seem to need in a program director. He's straight forward about how he runs things, which is with an iron fist for the most part. Yes, he has fired residents (only a few), but anyone who has heard the full story agrees it was warrented. He does care about resident education, even if his methods are a little "old school" and at times unneccesarily harsh. He's kept the program running well for 31 years, and that's an accomplishment. Chuinard is less talked about, so there's no need to defend him. Just understand that he's as much if not more reason that the program carries the malignant reputation it does.

I bring all this up because Hamilton is stepping down as chair of the department as of a couple weeks from now and plans to retire within the next year. In fact, he already has purchased a house in another state in anticipation of retiring. Chuinard is leaving permanently as of this fall. We are all very excited about our new program director, Dr. Richard Evans from Arkansas. Our residency has actually already changed in significant ways over the last year. The junior residents operate much more than before, and are the only resident in most cases they are in now. Our new trauma attending has brought a much needed update to the way we do trauma, and we now work at another private type hospital where we get a lot more sports with our sports attending. The two residents there each run an OR room and get to do most of the cases from start to finish. There are other changes, but the point of this was to say that we have a new chairman, Hamilton and Chuinard are leaving so those who were apprehensive before about taking a look at our program should give us another look or come rotate with us.

I live locally to this program have indeed heard that Hamilton is retiring and Chuniard is leaving. Didnt you always work at another hospital, st lukes with the large private group there? I hope that the new chair can reverse the damage that Dr Hamiltons, although perhaps well intentioned, shenanigans have caused to this programs reputation. Back when I interviewed i went to over 15 places all over the country, and everyone knew about this place and the crazy interview day stories.

Fortunately, yes Dr. Evans is slowing turnging things around. The actual overal feel of the residency is different and improving. Yes, we still work with the large private group, midwest orthopaedic surgery at St. Luke's. They are a great asset to the program. We may be hiring a new hand surgeon in the next year or so, which will also help with Chuinard leaving.

As far as the "damage" Hamilton has done as spoken of in the previous post, I think the damage is mostly limited to the reputation. He scared a lot of people off on interview days. There are several things about the program that are definately less desirable that he has put in place. However, most of the problem was that he was the opposite of a resident advocate as a program director and he was the department chair at the same time so there was no check and ballance system. I have to say he has calmed down significantly in the last few years and is actually not terrible to work with now. Things are looking up.