Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center Emergency Medicine - Q&A for New Applicants

[mohands701]

For all new applicants applying to the Emergency Medicine Residency Program at Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center

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[mohands701]

Hello new EM applicants!

I am a second year EM resident at Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center in Toledo, OH. Myself and other EM residents will be a part of this thread to answer any questions regarding our EM program! If your question is not answered on the thread, please feel free to email me at [email protected].

Good luck and remember that you have made the best decision in your medical career to be an emergency medicine physician!

 

[mohands701]

St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center - Toledo, OH

Overview:
One of the most seasoned programs in the nation. Started in 1976, so this place is pretty well-established .

City::
Toledo is smaller urban city, with some really nice surrounding suburbs south of it and west of it. You are pretty close to michigan (if you are a Buckeye fan, you could care less haha), so places like Ann Arbor and Detroit are an hour or less away. Perrysburg is a really nice suburb, along with Maumee, that have nice historic "main-street" downtowns with relatively affluent neighborhoods. The main Toledo downtown is crime-infested, which makes for a great experience on the trauma front.

Pre-interview:
Dinner with residents at a nice Italian restaurant downtown by the river. There were several residents that came and were all very easy to talk to. They seemed happy, which is something I didn’t find at every pre-interview dinner. Information regarding a nearby hotel was provided. They provided a shuttle to and from this hotel.

Interview day:
Started at 8 am. It was on a didactic day for the program, but we didn’t officially sit in on any lectures. We were told we could stop in the lecture room when we had downtime if we wanted to. We met with one of the assistant program directors, then had a resident give a more in depth review of the details of the program. This was all laid back and we could ask questions as they came up. We each had three interviews lasting about 20 minutes each. I had one with the PD, one with a resident and one with another faculty member. All were laid back, conversational, no big surprise questions. The resident probably asked the toughest questions out of all three. After this we had a catered lunch and got a tour of the hospital with two residents. We got to see the helicopter, which is of course a big part of their program. As far as the hospital, they kept it brief (which was much appreciated) and basically toured the ER, ICU and gym, since this is what most people were interested in seeing. Ended the interview day in early afternoon.

Facilities:
Mercy St Vincent is a tertiary center with about 450 beds. Level 1 trauma center, which sees most of the inner city trauma due to the location. The ER is set up with a large catchment area that sees the highest acuity, the A-zone, a back area that sees lower acuity, C-Zone, and a fast track, D-zone. Then there is a separate pediatric area that is only open certain hours. Epic is the EMR used in the ER.

Curriculum:
Three year program. 4 months in the ER first year, 8 and 9 in years 2 and 3. 2 months of trauma in year 1 and 1 month in year 2. There is neurology and neurosurgery rotations in 2nd year which I heard are very tough from several residents, but with very supportive attending physicians and tremendous learning. The program is very heavy on EMS front. Residents serve as flight doctors in their 3rd year. LifeFlight is the crown jewel of this program!! Amazing EMS experience, including a tremendous amount of on-scene stabilization of patients, from what I heard from residents.l. I heard ICU was a strong rotation. As far as weaknesses I heard that OB is weak, but I heard this most places. I heard from several residents and faculty that the EM program is the largest and strongest residency in the hospital. This place gets TONS of procedures from what residents have said. You will be extremely proficient

Faculty:
Dr. King has been the program director for many years. He also seems to be very high up with the administration in the hospital. All other faculty I remember meeting seemed very energetic and personable. People in the EM community know him well!!

Shifts:
10 hour shifts in the main ED with 8 hr shifts on Peds. Interns start with 21 per EM month which decreases to 18 and 18. In your EM2 year, if you decide to be a flight doc, you can have a shift reduction.

Didactics:
8-1 on Tuesdays. What is nice is that the Ohio ACEP Board review course is run by Dr. McCrae, who is one of the prominent faculty members for this program and the President of Ohio ACEP.


OVERALL:

AWESOME place to train! This place will definitely make you a strong ER doc. Also, Randall King, the PD, is well known in the EM community, so finding solid EM jobs coming out of here will be no problem at all

 

[TraumaMed]

Thanks for doing this! Sounds like you guys have a great program. I'm an M4 and I'll be applying to EM and looking to stay in the Midwest.

1. What recent change to your program, if any, has been made because of resident input?
2. It sounds like you guys take great pride in your flight program and I always thought it would be cool to work on a helicopter. How do you think the flight program at Mercy contributes to the education of residents in a way that prepares them to function as an attending?
3. Any advice for an M4 about to start my aways soon?

Thanks!!

 

[Mighty Mouse]

St Vincent's alumni here. Fantastic training. Couldn't have been happier with my choice. Happy to contribute input if needed

 

[mohands701]

Thanks for doing this! Sounds like you guys have a great program. I'm an M4 and I'll be applying to EM and looking to stay in the Midwest.

1. What recent change to your program, if any, has been made because of resident input?
2. It sounds like you guys take great pride in your flight program and I always thought it would be cool to work on a helicopter. How do you think the flight program at Mercy contributes to the education of residents in a way that prepares them to function as an attending?
3. Any advice for an M4 about to start my aways soon?

Thanks!!

Hi TraumaMed,

1. Recent changes that have been implemented include shift adjustments made to our ER schedule, the addition of a radiology/critical care liaison month as a 2nd year to help 1st years facilitate their treatment plans for critically ill patients in the ED and optimize our reads of X-rays and other imaging.

2. The flight program provides a great deal of autonomy as a third year resident, where you as the resident make the calls regarding intubation and management of patients out of hospital. This autonomy threads a great transition towards attending status.

3. As an M4, get your application done early and work on getting SLOE's from reputable faculty members at big ER programs. Your SLOE carries more weight than you think. Also, apply broadly..you never know where you will get an interview..take step 2 early if you have a lower step 1, it carries good weight when programs see a positive trend in your scores

Hope that helps! Let me know if I can clarify any other info

 

[islandAddy1881]

Hey mohands701!

What kind of ortho exposure do you guys get? Do you do your own reductions?

Love your program! I'm originally from the midwest and looking to match back in the area. Thanks for taking the time to do this!