St. Luke's Hospital (Bethlehem, PA) Residency Reviews

This was my first interview. I had a great time touring the ED with the residents, they all seemed like they had a good time working and hanging out together. I really didn't expect much but I was pleasantly surprised by the patient volume and acuity. Bethlehem, Pa. is a medium sized northern town within shouting distance of NYC. Dr. Heller is terrific, he is also one of the grandfathers of US, so you'll certainly be proficient in that after graduating. Interviews were completely low-key and conversational. The tour, lunch, program overview, etc. were all as per usual.
I thought it was a solid, smaller community program with good didactics and a pretty sweet lifestyle.

St. Luke's (Bethlehem):

Interviewed there last month. Still big on US. They are remodeling the residency offices, so they should be nice when they're done. Residents are a good mix of singe/married+/- kids. Most seem to be from the NE area. Great location. Bethlehem has the history of an old steel town, but has the feel of a college town. some pretty good restaurants, and a new outdoor mall 10 min. away. I'm not sure how "International" Lehigh Valley Airport is, since their aren't many direct flights in/out. Weekend trips to NYC/Philly are definitely possible; both are less than 2 hours away with traffic.

This is a review sent to me by a SDN user who interviewed there and wishes to remain anonymous. I am posting it verbatim as a service for the SDN community.

St. Luke’s (Bethlehem, PA)

Pros: Loved everyone I met at this program. Good mix of trauma with complicated medical. Good salary for low cost of living area. EM residents respond to every rapid response in the hospital and are in charge of all airways. Starting medical school there in 2011 (I don’t remember if it’s a branch of Temple or a second Temple school). Critical care fellowship that has 2 spots and they said they almost always take 1 from their program and one from somewhere else, so if you know you want to do critical care I’d look into this program.

Cons: Bethlehem is an old industrial city that has seen better days, but it’s definitely in a renaissance and seemed nice enough, but if you’re looking for a big city, this isn’t it.

Impression: I don’t even remember why I applied here, but I’m glad I did. This was my other “hidden gem” program.

Bump!!

Any current residents or recent grads want to review?

I interviewed at this program last year. I also completed an AI with them. It was among my top choices and I would have been overjoyed if I matched. As the above review states, it really is a hidden gem.
The PDs (of both the ACGME and AOA) are relaxed, very experienced and care deeply for the program and residents. They are currently growing their already robust research initiatives. The SIM lab is excellent, right across the street from the hospital. This program definitely had a tight knit group of residents that regularly hang out together, vacation together etc. Faculty and residents met to play soccer during my month there multiple times. Speaking of which, the faculty were very strong. A good mix of long time st lukes attendings with fresh new attendings. All were happy to be there and took time to teach during clinical shifts. Residents tended to trend on the younger side, but a few were married with kids etc. relaxed work environment, 10 hr shifts, up to date ED. The ED residents respond to code blues everywhere in the hospital and are 100% in charge of airways. weekly conferences were well run and well attended, the great majority being taught by faculty or guest lecturers.

Bethlehem is an old factory city. Not large, but not tiny. There are a variety of restaurants/bars in the downtown area. moravian and lehigh are within the city, giving parts of it a college town feel. between bethlehem and allentown there are plenty of affordable housing options for residents. most live within these 2 cities. St Lukes has an excellent gym, brand new. better than any gym ive used as a paying member (it was free for AIs, not sure on cost for residents) the hospital as a whole was new, looks like $$ flow isnt a problem. good food.

please excuse the stream of consciousnesses style of my review. Again as I said above, I would have been very happy to match at St. Lukes. This program is definitely worth a close look.

also completed an away here. fantastic and super chill residents and attendings who are always down to teach. like darkhorse said, everybody's tight-knit, mad supportive of each other. I got some serious warm and fuzzies from this program. everybody in the hospital seems to get along with each other too. good relationships with trauma. good mix of medicine and trauma. not too much penetrating trauma, more MCV type stuff. I saw a lot of aging nursing home population while I was there mixed in with the poor young population. decent number of peds cases, but the hospital's got a pretty small peds floor, no PICU. all the complex peds cases get shipped out to st. chris in philly.

anyone that's an employee/student there gets the free gym membership, and apparently you also get a lot of local discounts on housing/apartment complexes by being a st. luke's employee. they've also got a med school (branch/regional campus of temple I think) with them now, so there were always opportunities for the residents to do a lot of solid teaching. temple kids seemed pretty chill for the most part.

major pluses in terms of location: 1hr from philly, 2hrs from new york. definitely day-trippable. a lot of great outdoorsy things to do really close by (hiking, rock climbing, kayaking, etc). and of course, wegmans.