Georgetown University Hospital/Washington Hospital Center

I was very excited to interview here because DC is a great city, and georgetown has a good name in the lay people world. For ophtho it was ok. They seem to work very hard with trauma, but from what I understood, their cataract number was just over 100. I could be wrong about that. Not that that is a very low number by any means, but it seems low for how busy they are otherwise. They also have some funny financial problems that no one went into details about. Also, they are on a 2-year reaccreditation cycle which seemed like a minor red flag as all the other programs I saw were mostly 4 or 5, with a couple of 3's. Residents though seemed pretty happy, it is a really great city, the name will sound relatively fancy to your patients, you get a good LASIK experience (very rare in residency), and they do pretty decently for fellowships.

Changes have occurred to this program since the last post. Georgetown is now with MedStar Washington. Bumping the thread to get latest input from current residents if possible.

any updated input? making a tough choice between this and another program. Thanks! 🙂

Hey guys,

I am a new attending who volunteers to operate a few times a year with the Georgetown resident. I did not train at Georgetown, but I have been very impressed by their residents, especially surgically.

I would say on average they do about 120 cataracts as the primary surgeon including femtosecond cases. They are also able to do some of the most complicated cases I have seen independently. Residents also do around 4 to 5 cases of retina, glaucoma, and cornea as the primary surgeon.

The program has been fully accredited for 4-5 years and most importantly, they do very well with fellowship and job placement. This year residents matched at Bascom for surgical retina, Cincinnati for cornea and Cornell for cornea. In addition, they have a funded international elective, something I wish I had done during residency.

Overall, it is a great program in an outstanding city.

Thanks and hope this helps!

From what I understood from talking to residents, their cataract numbers are still not that great (100-120ish) but pretty standard for east coast. They did seem pretty happy and not overworked at all.

It's a good program; if I were in the DC area I would go to Georgetown/WHC. They see a lot of serious pathology. The graduates I know from the program are very good surgically and clinically. Their cataracts numbers could be higher compared to more rural programs outside the northeast but I think the cataracts they do are typically far more difficult then your typical cataracts (they have lots of trauma induced cataracts with phacodenesis and uveitis cataracts from under-insured patients at the WHC and their lions eye clinic). I would also add that they have a lot of diversity in their cases besides just cataracts.

They have a lot going for them. In terms of their downsides: the biggest issue I think is getting to the administration of Medstar (the health system that runs WHC and Georgetown) to do better financially supporting their physicians and training programs. The doctors (not just the ophthalmologists) I know in the D.C. area are not big fans of Medstar.

Georgetown sees all the trauma and most diverse pathology since mainly indigent population, very busy and worse lifestyle. Low surgical numbers, cataracts in low 100s with 1 DC VA that shares with GW. Solid fellowship match.

GW is more a private practice like program. Sees more upper-middle class population so far less trauma and pathology, but much better lifestyle. Great facilities. Surgical numbers still on lower side but better than Gtown (cataracts ~140 since has 2 VAs although 2nd VA is an hour away in DC traffic). Great fellowship match, def better than Georgetown.

I'm a current 3rd year resident at Georgetown/WHC and couldn't be happier with my choice to go here. Everyone in my class that wanted to do a fellowship matched very well, I got great comprehensive training, and had a positive experience all the way through.
All the residents have a really fun time together and hang out frequently. DC is an awesome place to live.
The attendings are super chill and approachable.
In response to the above post: GW is a great program too. It has a more academic feel as the clinics are attending run. Georgetown is all resident run clinics and has a more inner-city environment.
It's probably slightly more busy than the other area programs but also has slightly better surgical numbers as I understand.
Now that GW has become a level one trauma center too their call has been busier and ours has been lighter. I still think we see a bit more trauma than them but it's more more even now.
Georgetown is the only program in the area where all the sites are in DC so you don't have to live in some other state for a few months.