Program Review
Staff / Faculty / Chairman
Dr. Saltzman (chair) has assembled a tremendous faculty and is extremely focused on continually improving the program. Virtually zero faculty turnover in the last 5-10 years. Big names in all subspecs, and they are all dedicated to resident education. All staff that I interacted with were approachable and none were malignant. Staff has voluntarily agreed to less pay in order to fund resident education and conferences. The program has at least 2 faculty in all subspecs and has a shoulder/elbow guy. The program has great depth and breadth for all ortho pathology. Drs. Stotts and Aoki are very involved in resident education and stick up for the residents.
Didactics / Teaching
The best I saw. Almost all are attending delivered, with occasional resident presentation. There is a subspec specific conference, trauma conference, grand rounds/didactics, and basic science/anatomy conference every week. There's a good mix of lectures and hands on learning.<br />
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Residents are sent to a diff't teaching conference each year.
Operating Experience
Operative experience is graduated based on experience and ability. Plenty to go around between residents and fellows, no cases were double-scrubbed. With all the cases I saw, residents were taken through cases by attendings. I was told that junior level residents would occasionally be taken through cases by upper levels or fellows in the spring. Chiefs were solid in the OR and demonstrated significant autonomy.<br />
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In addition to operative experience at the university, PGY5's have a sports rotation at a community practice, providing private practice exposure. They are in the process of creating an optional trauma rotation in Ghana.
Clinic Experience
Typical clinic. A lot of teaching from faculty.
Research Opportunities
Abundant. Tons of funding including from NIH (#6 in country), DoD, and others. While funding is available, they provide support to help with grant writing, etc. Great facilities staffed with PhD's to further the research experience. Variety of opportunities from basic science/tissue engineering to biomechanics to clinical. While there are many opportunities available, nothing is forced on the residents and some choose to do only the one required project.
Residents
Great group. All are extremely knowledgeable and motivated. They get along great and get together outside the hospital. They stick up for each other and are very team oriented in patient care. Chiefs get whatever fellowship they want.<br />
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Most are outdoor enthusiasts. A majority are married.
Lifestyle
The lifestyle is very conducive to family life. Home call for many of the services.<br />
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Intern year not as difficult as some other programs I saw. Nightfloat as a PGY2 makes life better for other residents.
Location / Housing
All the locations are within a mile of each other, and most are connected. <br />
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SLC is an outdoor mecca with tons to do. There's virtually no traffic, the city is extremely safe, and the COL is low for a large city. Not much nice, newer housing in the city. 30% LDS in city limits. The nightlife leaves something to be desired, but it is improving with recent relaxation of previous alcohol laws.
Limitations
Fellows. As with most top tier programs, Utah has a number of fellows. However, they are a resident first program. They have eliminated fellowship positions at the suggestion of the residents when it was believed that the fellows were taking away from the resident experience. The fellows and residents I saw had a great working relationship, and there was no "case stealing".
Overall Rotation Experience / Conclusion
I believe Utah is the best program in the West, and one of the top 5 programs in the country. I could not find a weakness in the program. Balanced in every aspect of residency education. I ranked this program very high.
