VG2014, I'm sorry for your negative experiences on the residency side of things. I can't speak to the ethics of the institution.
I can only speak as a resident who has rotated with the pain department at some point in the last three years and still do regularly keep in contact with some of the pain attendings and fellows. Was not a resident there.
Yes, in the late 2000s, early 2010s, there was an anesthesiologist who fabricated a whole bunch of data and no one is proud of him. He was dismissed, served jail time and certainly won't practice again at Baystate. Questionable as to whether or not he will practice medicine again... The anesthesia and pain programs will talk about him and certainly don't try to cover him up. However, he certainly is not reflective of the other pain faculty at the program, nor their ethics.
There are about 10 pain faculty who rotate through the clinic with three fellows per year. All of them are thoroughly invested in fellow education and none are malignant. Some are more effective teachers than other. Fellows get a pretty great volume of bread and butter procedures, and each logged around 1000-1200 interventions (pre-covid). No pump program. A couple of kyphos per fellow, 10 ish stims including of SCS and DRG combined. They're looking to implant a PNS program according to one of the fellows who is there now. Introduced vertiflex but not sure of the numbers there. When I was on the interview trail, these numbers seemed about average for middle of the road programs. Obviously, the heavy hitters will do quite a bit more implantable work, but lets face it, not everyone is a candidate for those programs.
Implant and OR experience a bit weak according to graduated fellows, but those who have graduated have gone into their first jobs stating this, and were able to pick up the skills on the job if they wanted to do their own implants. Facilities are a little dated. Not a ton of research support here as a result of the research fabrication in the past. Fewer academic appointments from past grads.
Clinic is more in line with a private practice experience. 40 min new evals 20 min followups. Takes some time initially, but fellows were able to develop efficiency to get through the day. Eightish exam rooms, one c-arm room. ROtate with pain psych, neurosurgery, rheum, etc. One resident rotates through at a time, so you'll get some help from them too.
Springfield itself isn't the nicest place, but 10 minutes south is Longmeadow which is a comfy middle class neighborhood which is completely safe, 20 minutes north is Northampton which is a fun little college town, and thirty minutes south is West Hartford which is quite a bit more upscale. Hospital campus is safe, and never really felt unsafe walking around there.
Program has a preference for anesthesia MD/DO. Occasionally PMR will get an interview if someone they know can vouch for you, and they have had two PMR fellows in the past five years. No EM/Psych/other residents. Usually take one resident internally.
Call was one in three weekends only during the day. No fellows responsible for overnight call. Usually 2-3 new consults to see. Yes there is APS management, but normally only involves 1-2 epidurals plus nerve block followup from the previous day. Round just at Baystate Medical Center.
Overall, fellows seemed happy, have been able to get jobs in places they want (Bay area CA, Orlando, NJ, several have stayed on as faculty too). Certainly not a big name with huge exposure, but a reasonable enough middle of the line option.
