"Huge case volume with relatively low number of residents so you'll have a good case every day. Strong ICUs especially in cardiac with good fellowship placement. Research is among the best in the anesthesia world both in the labs and clinically. Strong peds, regional, cardiac - I was unable to find a weakness in any of the clinical disciplines at this program. Gorgeous hospital facilities and only one site to train at - there's a train that goes to the hospital and apts right across the street so going car-less is feasible." | More from this Member | Report Response

"The program director and chairman are both very ambitious for the program and want to make the program very competitive. The program does a lot of research, but does not mandate that you have to. There is definitely an opportunity for research if you want to do heavy bench research all the way to light clinical research. Most of the attendings are fellowship trained. CRNAs are present, but we were told that they do cases that residents don't really need to do and transplants/traumas etc are saved for residents." | More from this Member | Report Response

"1. Strong commitment to getting the best educational experience for the residents as possible. Exceedingly high surgical volume (80,000+) per year yet residents only do about 30% of the cases which gives them enormous flexibility in scheduling only the best cases for the residents. Of course protected didactic time and the attendings really try to challenge the residents by assigning residents difficult cases constantly. 2. anesthesiology department has high visibility within the hospital - they are very well regarded and respected. As an example, they have their pre-op clinic staffed by their most senior faculty (chair, vice chair, etc) who all still staff rooms daily/weekly. This helps them interface with surgeons and rest of the hospital. 3. ALL attendings run their own rooms (no residents or CRNA's) at least one time a week. 4. Stable faculty with low turnover with high faculty: resident ratio. Although they could support many more residents with their surgical volume, Dr. Evers (chair) has really pushed to keep their resident #'s low (12 categorical/6 advanced) to optimize each residents learning experience. This helps the residents get phenomenal case complexity and volume despite every fellowship under the sun. 5. Subspecialty experience is impressive - no weaknesses anywhere except regional (??) but that seems to be a VERY common theme as I’m discovering on the trail. Strong CT, peds (St. Louis Children's), OB (about 3500 deliveries a year, high risk), pain, transplant, and ICU. CTICU 100% staffed by anesthesiology (also claim best outcomes of all the units in the hospital) and half of the SICU attendings. Residents stated that teaching in the CTICU was fantastic with tons and tons of teaching. 6. Research - if you want it, it's here. Top funded anesthesia research department. 7. High commitment to simulation research and training. Currently 2 big sim centers and will open a children's center in April 09. Dedicated faculty for simulation education and training. 8. Fellowships: they have it all here. At an advantage if you are in-house because they like to take their own. 85-90% do fellowships - have that in my notes but will have to double check. Most do fellowship at Wash U. Was surprised to hear the chair state an "expectation" to have their residents do fellowships. However I talked to several residents who had not made up their mind about fellowship or not. 9. COL in St. Louis is very affordable with lots of residents owning houses throughout metro area. 10. Facilities: BJH is simply a gorgeous hospital. Very big but everything is connected by skyway. 11. Good comraderie and residents seem happy to have matched there. CA-2 class sent to ASA every year all expenses paid. 12. Very responsive to resident concerns. Continually revising CBY based on intern feedback. Chair and PD (who are both fantastic) fight VERY hard for their residents. 13. Resident flexibility in developing own anesthetic plans - attendings come from all over the world which gives the residents broad exposure to many different ways of doing anesthetics." | More from this Member | Report Response

"St. Louis - not as bad as everyone always says and definitely affordable, but quite remote and definitely doesn't have the draw of competitors in SF, NYC, Chicago, etc. If you don't mind St. Louis this program can't be beat." | More from this Member | Report Response

"Not too much. I think the only real downside to the program is the city of St. Louis is not a desirable place to live." | More from this Member | Report Response

"1. CBY definitely on the hard side but anesthesia relevant. 4 months of medicine (1 mo cards), 2 mo surgery, 2 EM (but trauma bay only). 2. Hrs: definitely crept up there (65ish) CA-2 and CA-3 year for a few months b/c CA-1 do not take call for the first 3 mos of the year. I kept hearing about 55-65 hrs a week depending on what rotation you were on. Several CA-2 mentioned never going a call night w/o sleep (usually a few hrs)." | More from this Member | Report Response

"Nice hotel right next to the hospital, picked up for a nice dinner by the residents. Interview day starts with great welcome by the chair and PD who are both huge assets to the program. Standard interviews and tour followed by lunch and limo tour of St. Louis." | More from this Member | Report Response

"The Bottom Line/Impression: A top 10 program with heavy emphasis on research and critical care.<p> Lodging/Dinner: Program provides hotel at nice place attached to the hospital. Residents pick you up for a nice dinner in St. Louis – el vino did flow.<p> Schedule: 0715 start with tour of very impressive hospital facilities. Donuts, bagels, coffee and talk from PD Dr. Cox on the nuts and bolts of the program. Dr. Evers (chair) then provides an outstanding abstract view of his vision for the program and the field. He emphasizes the type of anesthesiologist they train (leaders and academics – he jokes that a fellowship is not optional) and the substantial effort they put into making their department visible in the hospital – chair and vice-chairs staff in the preop clinic where nearly 80% of elective cases are seen, ICU staffing with 15 intensivists, about once a week attendings do their own cases so they stay sharp and visible to the surgeons. He also makes a point of constantly pushing you out of your “comfort zone” so learning is continual. Then, interviews which were fairly intense (ethical decision-making questions, “Why did you apply here? Why are you going anesthesia?”) definitely not conversational/friendly/chatty and a lot of them – 5. Everyone meets w/ PD and chair. Then lunch with residents and tour of St. Louis in the limo. Residents seemed very sharp but on average the nerdiest group I’ve met.<p> Program Info: 18 spots, 12 categorical and 6 advanced. Intern year is very diverse and a lot of time is spent with the anesthesia department (2 ICU, sim, OR, ?preop). All of your required rotations are under one roof at Children’s, Barnes, or outpatient “Center for Advanced Medicine.” <p>Pros: Outstanding caseload – residents cover about 60 OR’s but the program is disproportionately small so you get good-to-great cases all the time and CRNAs and MDs do the rest. Dr. Evers seems like a great chairman, has been the chair for 16 years, is very stable and very senior in the country, even attends in the SICU. Repeatedly he said “You do the cases you NEED to do, not necessarily the cases you want to do and not the cases we need you to do.” They say you do more liver transplants than lap choles here. ICU experience is excellent and expanding. Level 1 trauma. Peds. High-risk OB. Several outstanding labs doing molecular, translational, and clinical work. The Avidan BIS paper in NEJM came out of here.<p> Cons: A VERY hardworking program. Regional is a relative weakness but Dr. Evers says it’s still better than 80% of the programs out there. They are in search of a top academic regional person and have been for years. We did not hear much about didactics. Residents were a hard-working but fairly nerdy bunch. Location could be an issue – St. Louis is a typical Midwestern city with a rotten urban core, affordable housing, rough winters and hot summers. This is nitpicking but most do fellowships at WashU – not sure why they’re not going elsewhere. " | More from this Member | Report Response

"Dinner the night before - met with chief resident and 2 other residents. All were extremely friendly and down to earth. The day of, we got 2 presentations in the AM from the program director and the chairman (he talks about his vision for the program and is very realistic and honest). After that, 4 interviews. Then lunch with the residents - all very friendly. Then limo tour of St. Louis." | More from this Member | Report Response

"Well attended dinner @ a very nice restaurant night before. Interview day started @ 7:15 for 1 hr tour, continental breakfast and program review by PD (Dr. Cox), then Dr. Evers comes gives a talk about Wash U Anesthesiology and his vision of the program. Dr. Cox deals with the specifics and Dr. Evers does the sell. I got the strong impression throughout the interview day that they want to turn out strong residents who have a high commitment to the field and will promote it, especially pre-op and post op. They are not interested in promoting technicians or people who want to do B&B anesthesia in a rural community. Anyways, after the sell there are 5 interviews (PD, chair, 3 faculty). All were very familiar with my app and asked me intelligent questions about it. Very conversational vibe but they do want to know that you know what anesthesia is about. Nice lunch to finish the day and lots of residents came out to chat with us. Overall had a great day. Impression: Superb program that will challenge you with great cases and give you easy opportunities to tons of great fellowships if you want. Had a feeling I would fit in very well with the program and I thought the residents were great. I will likely rank it very highly. " | More from this Member | Report Response