Med school at UTC and Erlanger questions (Memphis, Chattanooga: university, live in)

[groovamos]

I have lived in Nashville, Chattanooga, Austin and now Houston (a few other places also). I went one year to UTC and my brother lives there in Hixson.

I studied the biomedical block in EE at UT Austin so I have a big interest in keeping abreast of the healthcare field. Because San Antonio has a large medical footprint and Houston is a monster medical and biomedical research force in the nation, Austin got left behind. They just got a med school there 3~4 years ago (funded by Michael Dell for UT), used the nice city hospital (Brackenridge) as the teaching hospital, and now one of the other hospitals (Seton) is building a teaching hospital next to the campus.

I just became aware of the med school at UTC because I was looking for the year Erlanger attained level I trauma center status. What I want to know is, how long has the med school been running there in 'nooga? And I was never able to ascertain when Erlanger was designated level I trauma designation, so do any of you know the year?

Austin got their first level I trauma center in 2009, 31 years after Nashville did at VUMC. It began at Brackenridge and taken over by the Seton main campus. I'm pretty sure that Austin was unavoidably comparing itself to Nashville as a peer city and clinicians here in Houston have told me that the pressure to remedy the situation came to a head in Austin a few years ago.

[Johnhw2]

As I am in DFW Tx but considering a move to Tn. I lived in Houston before retiring and moving here. My wife has a compromised immune system. Learning as I just did that there is a med school in Chatt is helpful to me. We need a very strong Internal medicine MD as well as a Rheumatologist and now an infection disease internist focused on C Diff and Auto Immune challenged patients.

Thanks for asking this question and educating me some on medical depth in this area. I suspect it still pales to Vanderbilt and UTK but those are not that far away either. Planes fly..... so we can come back to her medical doctors here on a planned basis... but local is ideal.

Our Internal medicine Dr is our primary care Doc. We have and need frequent access to him for my wife so we are paying for and valuing concierge medicine options.

[keithps]

Originally Posted by groovamos

I have lived in Nashville, Chattanooga, Austin and now Houston (a few other places also). I went one year to UTC and my brother lives there in Hixson.

I studied the biomedical block in EE at UT Austin so I have a big interest in keeping abreast of the healthcare field. Because San Antonio has a large medical footprint and Houston is a monster medical and biomedical research force in the nation, Austin got left behind. They just got a med school there 3~4 years ago (funded by Michael Dell for UT), used the nice city hospital (Brackenridge) as the teaching hospital, and now one of the other hospitals (Seton) is building a teaching hospital next to the campus.

I just became aware of the med school at UTC because I was looking for the year Erlanger attained level I trauma center status. What I want to know is, how long has the med school been running there in 'nooga? And I was never able to ascertain when Erlanger was designated level I trauma designation, so do any of you know the year?

Austin got their first level I trauma center in 2009, 31 years after Nashville did at VUMC. It began at Brackenridge and taken over by the Seton main campus. I'm pretty sure that Austin was unavoidably comparing itself to Nashville as a peer city and clinicians here in Houston have told me that the pressure to remedy the situation came to a head in Austin a few years ago.

Looks like UTC med school was established in 1973: https://www.utcomchatt.org/subpage.php?pageId=500

As far as trauma, I don't know how longer Erlanger has been a Level 1 Trauma Center, but they established an air medical service in 1988, so I imagine they were Level 1 Trauma before that. LIFE FORCE History | Life Force

[groovamos]

Originally Posted by Johnhw2

Thanks for asking this question and educating me some on medical depth in this area. I suspect it still pales to Vanderbilt and UTK but those are not that far away either. Planes fly..... so we can come back to her medical doctors here on a planned basis... but local is ideal.

My sister and her husband live in Birmingham and can afford the best, so for major procedures (each has had one) they drive up to Nashville for VUMC as do some of their friends. Atlanta is closer to them too than Nashville. Also consider that Atlanta is only 100 miles away from Chattanooga. But the advantage of VUMC is they have reciprocal relationship with Erlanger, I don't know exactly what that means but it should be a snap to have your treatment options and strategy shared between the two. The medical ecology is pretty potent in Nashville, a lot of medical software comes out of there, and healthcare management is the largest sector of the Nashville economy right now.

[Johnhw2]

Thanks. We may well keep coming to Dallas for the rheumatogist as it's hard to find a great one and he is. We see him every 6 months and maybe one a year when issues arise. The internist is done we need monthly based on history so need to go local there and feel sure we can find one in the concierge networks. But a med school insures they are connected to good specialists and network with the other practices to keep up to date and their knowledge broad.

[luvmyboxer]

FYI the University of Tennessee Medical School is in Memphis, about 5 hours away from Chattanooga. The Chattanooga campus, based at Erlanger, offers some medical residency programs and clinical rotations for 3rd and 4th year medical students. However, it is not a free-standing medical school in itself.