hello all! made new account to stay anonymous but i wanted to pay it forward and give you my 2 cents on these places i interviewed/rotated at. Please note though these are extremely person-dependent and only representative of how I felt during my experiences. feel free to add to the running list...
Good Samaritan Hospital (West Islip, NY)
Length: staying 4 years
Spots: 4/year; there was talk about increasing but not to date
Pros: 90k visits per year, trauma II center, see pretty good pathology; EPIC EMR, most attendings are fellowship trained in ultrasound or administration. Have separate pediatric ED staffed by pediatricians. Nursing staff better than NYC city hospitals. Free parking. 1:1 attending to resident ratio. In-house ultrasound and admin fellowships available. Have OBS unit. Within ~1hr to NYC. Beaches near by. Probably best of the NYC programs. Wednesday conferences were informative and lectures were not bad but cramped into small room. Initial accreditation
Cons: Terrible student rotation, stood around, did nothing, gives no autonomy. Residents varied in caliber, some were well read and awesome to hang out with, some were high strung, cocky, and not the brightest. Some attendings come off as pretty malignant. Cafeteria absolutely blows. Out in the middle of no where, deep, deep into Long Island. Levy wants numbers despite anything else. Did not see many procedures during month rotating here. Trauma bay is the size of my living room. Too many mid-level providers in both fast track and main pods. Conference room is also tiny, can barely house all the residents/students. Patient population can be nasty; rich, white, entitled people who tell you how to practice. Still snows and gets cold.
St. Barnabas Hospital (Bronx, NY)
Length: staying 4 years
Spots: 13/year; may or may not change; new PD, new administration
Pros: Terrible area, which most of the time translates into good pathology and training. Will come out of here thick skinned and able to handle most things. Good food/bakery down the street, Arthur avenue. Great student rotation, lots of exposure and autonomy w/ procedures. It’s still NYC. Initial accreditation.
Cons: Terrible patient population, terrible location, terrible ancillary/nursing staff. Nurses walk around w/ headphones in and ignore you, don’t do work. Fish bowl style ED layout, psych patients scattered throughout; come up to you at your workstation asking for pain meds. Huge HIV/HepC population. Sink or swim approach to learning; ratio ranges from 1:3 or 1:5 attending to residents. You do your own peripheral lines, you push your own patients to CT. Ton of off service rotations.
Coney Island Hospital (Brooklyn, NY)
Length: staying 4 years
Spots: 6/year
Pros: variety of experiences, multi-hospital exposure; Bronx, Harlem, Brooklyn. Awesome PD and administration. In the midst of renovating their ED as they were damaged by Hurricane Sandy. Program has ton of potential in the future; South Brooklyn has great pathology. Has own peds ED. It’s still NYC.
Cons: poor city hospital; has bad reputation; only 1 resident showed up to our interview day. Did not get to meet people in the program. Bad area. City hospital thus, you get the same lack of ancillary and nursing support. A lot of off-service rotations with fewer EM months. Pre-accreditation
Aria Health (Philadelphia, PA)
Length: staying 4 years
Spots: 6/year
Pros: Awesome student rotation; 3 campus experience: urban, suburban and 1-doc coverage ED exposure; with all 3, see over 130k+/year. Residents were a mix bag since the class is so huge. Most were friendly and cool to hang out with and smart. Decent amount of autonomy. Attendings are mostly young, recent graduates from Aria, Temple, or St. Luke’s. Some teach more than others, some don’t at all. 10 hour shifts. A lot of ultrasound exposure. Torresdale ED is one of the most beautiful EDs I’ve ever seen, big, maybe too big. Awesome trauma bay. Good ancillary support. Decent cafeteria, pretty flexible in where you can live. Depending on whether or not you like philly, can be pro or con. Wednesday conferences seemed pretty organized and consistent.
Cons: Some may find traveling to 3 hospitals to be a con; Frankford is in terrible location; not unusual for patients to get shot in front of the hospital (a pro if you are a procedure cowboy lol). Low salary for Philly cost of living; could not feel PD presence; a lot don’t jive well with APD.
Kennedy University Hospital (Stratford, NJ)
Length: converting to 3 year
Spots: 11/year
Pros: 3 year program; good location, close to Philly and NYC. 3-4 hospital exposure; ton of volume and pathology. Good acuity. Strong ties with medical school/facilities; academically driven. A lot of autonomy during first year. can use school facilities (gym, library, etc). Didactics were pretty well organized and PD and APD both show up to these. Cherry hill getting complete make-over. Cafeteria’s are nice and hospital facilities/ED looks relatively modern mix of curtained rooms and walled rooms. Right outside of Philadelphia – half the residents live there; ~20 min drive.
Cons: Work a lot of shifts. They do something like 20-21 shifts per month. Some attendings teach more than others. Traveling to different sites can be a negative for some. Used to have traditional TRI-ish year with medicine call incorporated, but will probably be changing w/ 3-year conversion. A lot of self-driven learning.
Inspira Health (Vineland, NJ)
Length: converting 3 year
Spots: 8/year
Pros: 75k+/year ED visits; Brand new hospital building including ED, everything is still shiny. Awesome resident lounge/call rooms stocked with drinks/food. PD is awesome, very on top of everything; Lehigh trained, residents all seemed to get along. Some residents clinically stronger than others; seniors love to teach, some staying on as faculty this year as they graduate their first class. Good cafeteria and benefits. Good out rotations; close enough to Philadelphia. Initial accreditation. Minimal useless off service rotations.
Cons: EMR sucks; location is not the best; about 30-45 min south of Philadelphia. Still relatively “newer” program but graduating their first class this year. Not a trauma center. Saw no trauma during my rotation.
Garden City Hospital (Garden City, MI)
Length: converting to 3 year
Spots: 6/year
Pros: the people are fantastic, everybody is friendly and happy to have you. Tight knit group, everybody seems to get along. PD has a strong presence in the ED, very supportive of his residents. Good benefits (free meals, parking, etc). Great student rotation, got to see a lot and do a lot. Free student meals + cheap student housing provided (I think like $100 for 4 weeks, but you get $300 in meal stipends during your month here).
Cons: a lot of lower acuity pathology; ton of fast track visits covered by EM attending/residents. Very small, old hospital, poorly funded (recently bought by primehealthcare); could use a facelift. Location is not bad but not the greatest. It’s suburbs of Detroit. Admin seems to be a one man show by the PD, everything is delayed; he could use some help. Faculty never come to didactics. Didactics are okay. Some attendings don’t teach at all. Not a trauma center; don’t see much high acuity.
Beaumont Trenton (Trenton, MI)
Length: staying 4 year
Spots: 6/year
Pros: Beautiful hospital at Dearborn with 65+ bed ED (trauma level 2); high acuity, ton of patients and variety in pathology. Very procedure heavy program; most interns signed off by first few months with lines, intubations, etc. First year is done at Trenton (22 bed ED, level 2 trauma center), still gets busy, but a lot lower acuity than Dearborn. EPIC EMR, both hospitals are still brand new, shiny, and good cafeteria at both. People are very nice. Didactics very board prep driven; does Rosh Review together on Wednesdays. Two hospital experience.
Cons: Did not see too many faculty present during rotation/interview day. Some find Detroit to be a negative. Resident group did not come off as cohesive as others. Surgery residents and EM doesn’t seem to get along; some attendings not enthusiastic about having to teach.
Arrowhead Regional Medical Center (Colton, CA)
Length: staying 4 years
Spots: 8/year
Pros: California. County Hospital with multiple other exposures to tertiary centers, community hospital, etc. Ton of trauma, I believe has 3 helicopter bays, and 8 trauma resus bays. Ton of autonomy, run own pod as intern. Attending does not see patients; just oversees residents work. Hospital still relatively new looking, a lot of faculty presence here. Didactics well organized and helpful. Come out here extremely well trained.
Cons: walls-to-balls experience – expected due to county hospital. Sink-or-swim approach to learning w/ the autonomy… maybe too much autonomy. Residents seemed a bit cocky and high strung. Only takes rotating students; they invited a handful of us who did not rotate but asked why we didn’t rotate and made clear our chances were not great (why invite us then?). Living cost is pretty high, but expected, California. More inland than people expect. Learning happens more from your seniors than from attendings. (Trickle down effect though is a positive)
Desert Regional Medical Center (Palm Springs, CA)
Length: converting 3 years
Spots: 8/year
Pros: 3 year program, strong faculty presence; most are arrowhead trained. Great PD, very down to earth, honest and wants you to learn. Program seems to be well funded and have money. Residents seem happy and proud. Good places to eat. About 2 hours from LA/beaches. Only trauma center between arrowhead and Arizona border. Trauma center. Coachella valley. Didactics were engaging and helpful.
Cons: still new program, have not graduated first class yet. Location may be +/-, extremely resort-like feeling in entire city. All snowbirds and visitors as patient population. Can reach 120 degrees in summer time. extremely high cost of living. The facilities are unusual; used to be a resort/hotel but relatively nice. Only takes 2-4 rotating students a month, very limiting for ppl who want to check out the program. PD pimps you during interview with medical scenarios. Trauma is mostly old ppl falling.
