letter to our applicants

So… what about Hurricane Ike?!

This is a very good question you might ask yourself and us in relation to residency training at UTMB – Galveston!

What I can tell you at this point is that the Family Medicine Residency Program in Galveston is continuing. We have for many years been fortunate to have available to us community hospitals in the area for several of our core rotations, as well as electives. Thanks to our off-campus sites and community preceptors, the FMRP experienced the least disruption in training probably of all the UTMB GME programs. Our residents were back on clinical rotations within one week of landfall, although many chose to rotate out of the immediate Houston-Galveston area for one or two rotation blocks, due to housing and personal family needs. No delays in graduation related to the storm are anticipated.

We don’t yet know exactly what the future of the clinical enterprise on campus will look like. Possibilities range from the establishment of essentially a 200 – 250 bed community hospital to as much as full recovery (650+ beds) although I think what eventually will come to pass probably lies somewhere in the middle. Campus-based rotations continue to come back online as time passes and various departments make progress in the recovery effort.

The future location of our Family Medicine Center (outpatient clinic) remains under negotiation. The two most likely contenders seem to be 1) in the University Health Clinics building near the ER or 2) that our Primary Care Pavilion clinic will be refurbished. If the long-term decision is option #2, we may temporarily be housed in the UHC until the PCP is ready for our return. At present, we are temporarily located in the Fast Track area adjacent to the ER. The only thing I can tell you for sure is that we won’t be staying there!

Now, why should you come here? If you enjoy building things, consider yourself a pioneer or adventurer, have a strong sense of personal responsibility and professionalism and are flexible and innovative in making the most of a wide variety of learning experiences, this may be the program for you! While many of our core rotation experiences remain stable, we intend to take this opportunity to reevaluate our curriculum as a whole and reinvent ourselves to our best potential in the coming few years. Sometimes change occurs slowly and incrementally and sometimes it occurs quickly in big ways. It would be a shame not to capitalize on this opportunity for amazing progress and we don’t intend to miss it. Come join us and be a part of reinventing our future!

Lisa R. Nash, DO, FAAFP
Program Director