[Helen Anderson]

UPDATE: We re-submitted our Complement Increase Request for our residency program 2 months ago, and ACGME emailed our approval today. I love that ACMGE was willing to review an updated application just a few months after we were denied. We’re excited to match an extra resident in 2027.

[Helen Anderson]

We’re down too! I was curious about our numbers as well, so I reviewed the totals from the CSV files in ERAS archives. Since program signals were introduced in 2023, our  total application volume has declined by approximately 20% each year over the past 3 years. However, this year we saw only a 7% decrease in applications. The encouraging news is that the number of program signals remained unchanged.

We believe we’ve hit that “sweet spot” with applicants using their signals more strategically and applying to 35-45 programs rather than the 80+ applications that were common before program signals. We would be more concerned if program signals were declining at the same rate as total applications, but the stable signal volume suggests continued strong interest in our program despite the overall reduction in application numbers.

–Helen, University of Utah

[Helen Anderson]

I’d love to join! I created a cumbersome process that collects this info in MedHub then transfers it to Excel to get actual calculations. I’d like to see what others are doing and find a better way to do this. Reach me at helen.anderson@hsc.utah.edu

• This reply was modified 2 months ago by Helen Anderson.
• This reply was modified 2 months ago by Helen Anderson.

[Helen Anderson]

Yes, the University of Utah hosts a Sub-I social event on the last Thursday of the 4-week rotation. Only residents can attend with the 7-9 rotators we have per month. It’s at a local bar with a private dining room, and we spend around $40 per person, which includes alcohol.

[Helen Anderson]

Yes, the University of Utah pays for a specialty conference for PGY4s. I was surprised to learn how much networking happens between our faculty and fellowship applicants. We’ve had to offer extra interviews when our faculty returns from a conference, so we leave a few spots open if there’s a conference between offer day and interview day. There is no budget limit for the trip, and we pay for registration, hotel, airfare, ground transportation, and a daily allowance for meals.

Here’s our standard trips per class:

PGY1 – No conference

PGY2 – AO Trauma Basic

PGY3 – Conference of choice

PGY4 – Fellowship Specialty Conference

PGY5 – AAOS

In addition to these conferences, our department will also pay all travel expenses for podium presentations, so residents can travel up to 2-4 conferences per year. Last year’s average per trip was around $2200/domestic and $2600/international.

[Helen Anderson]

We reached out to the Univ of Michigan PD last year and received this response:

We actually tried to participate in their beta testing last year (2024), but our GME Office  wouldn’t allow us to. They were not okay with us sharing the ERAS applications with Athenascore, particularly given it was still in a testing phase and potentially considered research. I was reminded of it again this year at the CORD meeting and was going to ask again. But unfortunately I can’t give you any feedback on it since we never got to use it.

[Helen Anderson]

This community is THE BEST! Many thanks to those who shared their successful and denied experiences with me. I compiled the attached table and hope it helps all of us in our next ACGME Complement Increase Application. This document hasn’t been approved by ACGME, so please rely on your best judgement.

FYI – Our main reasons for denial was a new hospital was listed as an added training site and low procedural volume compared to the national average in ACGME ADS.

• We have broken ground on the new hospital and have a plan in place for Ortho Surg, but ACGME has been burned in the past when other programs used this justification. She told us to BUILD IT FIRST.
• It didn’t help that our residents were under-reporting case logs due to the change to ABOS KSB. If anyone has tips on how they incentivize their trainees to log all cases/procedures, I’d love to hear them!

And on a fun side note, my PD pointed out to the RC director that we can’t get case logs in the 90th percentile without violating ACGME work hour rules, and she invited us to include this comment in our next application. We all know the work hour rules, but ACGME won’t read between the lines and some things need to be stated explicitly.  Who knew????

Attachments:

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[Helen Anderson]

Thanks, everyone! I will definitely share the info, but I’m prepping for CCC/PEC tonight. It’s been super helpful to get the data for successful increases so that we can share it with our committee today. I will add a post tomorrow to share what we learned from ACGME.

The Orthopaedic Surgery RC Executive Director is Kristen Ward Hirsch (kwardhirsch@acgme.org).

[Helen Anderson]

I like the guidelines too! The University of Utah is going to follow them. We’ve been very lucky to work with a Student Affairs Team who helps us with VSLO and follows our department timeline instead of their standard School of Medicine timeline. I’m interested to see how it will work with two cycles, but we can make it happen.

There’s a workaround in case your institution doesn’t adjust timelines based on CORD’s recommendations. Students apply directly to you via email, you complete your own application review via shared folders, and then you send email offers on the offer days. Let them know they will still be required to apply in VSLO and pay the appropriate fees, as well as meet institution requirements listed in VSLO, or their offer can be rescinded. It can be a lot of manual work outside of VSLO, but we were planning to do it if Student Affairs wasn’t willing to make accommodations for us.

[Helen Anderson]

The Adobe PDF printer gave me terrible resolution. Instead, I selected “Save as PDF” in my printer options, and it came out perfectly! Good luck!!

[Helen Anderson]

My residency program dinner in Utah is also HUGE. We have 70 applicants and their SO’s, plus 45 faculty and 30 residents for one social dinner. We hold it at a faculty’s home with a full service catered buffet that includes alcohol. We rent extra tables, linens, china and glassware as needed, and we reimburse cleaning fees. Parking can be an issue, depending on whose house we use. Last year we provided shuttles to/from our orthopaedic center to manage the parking and  weather. It can be snowy in January…

[Helen Anderson]

At the University of Utah, we pay for Step 3, Loupes, Lead, and ABOS Part I. We also cover 1 course or conference per PGY 2-5 year. AO Basic is usually completed in the second year.

[Helen Anderson]

We had one match in General Surgery, and the rest matched in Ortho Surgery.  Nothing unusual for us either.

Helen, University of Utah

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