- Joined
- Mar 26, 2005
- Messages
- 369
- Reaction score
- 0
This is my experience and yes I feel totally burned by this organization.
In a galaxy far far away a lowly intern accepted a position for a transitional year having not matched for EM in the ACGME world. As I was finishing up my orientation a position became available for EM and I was excited. So I approached my PD and she stated it was no problem and that they would release me. The new program required a letter of release and when I went to get the letter I found they were charging we over 1200 dollars to let me go. I can understand paying for the white coats and licensing fees but they charged me for every fee under the sun. Now Indiana does not allow deductions unless the employer gets a signed statement form the employee. Guess what, unless I agreed to all of these fees there was no letter in my future. These people suck and you should stay away - far away.
When I was discussing the program with the PD - one of my concerns was a family friendly program that did not beat you like a rented mule. I was assured that this was not the case and hours were reasonable with NO CALL (could not believe I was hearing this - no call!). I get my schedule and hours consisted of 7AM to 7PM 5 days a week (not to bad) but I also had 2 weekends of call (CALL???) with a grand total of 312 hours a month with two 13 day stretches. The real issue is that they can't fill their spots and so interns fill all the holes. I made a terrible mistake not talking to a current residents - because I would have went elsewhere had I found out that this was the schedule for the next year.
So this program has an honesty problem and what they say and what they do are quite different. NOW again this is my experience but if you have questions please PM me and I will show you the documents.
My hope is that someone else does not have to go through what I did. All they had to say was no you can't go to another program, we are going to charge you for every single expense we incurred (even though this was not stipulated in the contract) and that would have been acceptable and I could have based my decision on truthful facts. But they forced me to sign a letter agreeing to these deductions knowing I could not start the other program without this release. they are snakes and you should avoid being bitten.....
In a galaxy far far away a lowly intern accepted a position for a transitional year having not matched for EM in the ACGME world. As I was finishing up my orientation a position became available for EM and I was excited. So I approached my PD and she stated it was no problem and that they would release me. The new program required a letter of release and when I went to get the letter I found they were charging we over 1200 dollars to let me go. I can understand paying for the white coats and licensing fees but they charged me for every fee under the sun. Now Indiana does not allow deductions unless the employer gets a signed statement form the employee. Guess what, unless I agreed to all of these fees there was no letter in my future. These people suck and you should stay away - far away.
When I was discussing the program with the PD - one of my concerns was a family friendly program that did not beat you like a rented mule. I was assured that this was not the case and hours were reasonable with NO CALL (could not believe I was hearing this - no call!). I get my schedule and hours consisted of 7AM to 7PM 5 days a week (not to bad) but I also had 2 weekends of call (CALL???) with a grand total of 312 hours a month with two 13 day stretches. The real issue is that they can't fill their spots and so interns fill all the holes. I made a terrible mistake not talking to a current residents - because I would have went elsewhere had I found out that this was the schedule for the next year.
So this program has an honesty problem and what they say and what they do are quite different. NOW again this is my experience but if you have questions please PM me and I will show you the documents.
My hope is that someone else does not have to go through what I did. All they had to say was no you can't go to another program, we are going to charge you for every single expense we incurred (even though this was not stipulated in the contract) and that would have been acceptable and I could have based my decision on truthful facts. But they forced me to sign a letter agreeing to these deductions knowing I could not start the other program without this release. they are snakes and you should avoid being bitten.....
You would prefer to not be allowed to go to the other program rather than being able to get out of your contract by paying some money? I don't understand that. If I could have gotten a spot in my preferred specialty just by paying some extra money I would have been glad to do it. In the long run, getting to do your specialty of choice is well worth it.
