Help me rank - OH and IL programs

You should definitely not rank Cincinnati. I hear it's really close to Kentucky, so you would pretty much be living in the south. The South! Plus, it's difficult to spell. I would go reverse-alphabet on this one.

OK, that's about as creative as I can be.

2008 EM Reviews said:

who claim that the site they interview you at is the oldest ED

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I interviewed at five programs that were the "1st or 2nd oldest" in the country . . . According to their powerpoint introduction.

I already tried to dissuade someone from Christ and all I could come up with is that there might be a bit of a commute if you live in the city. That and it's cold. But on the up side it is a lot easier to spell than a couple other of the places. Plus you get a lot of weird looks when people ask you where liked on your interviews and you respond with "I love Christ."

I'm all for reverse alphabet ranking here.

I did not rotate at any of these, but I did interview and do second looks at 3 of them.

Northwestern- My second look was fantastic. All the residents and attendings were friendly, hard working, and patient conscientious. As I am sure you have heard, Jim Adams is suppossed to be amazing. His name was dropped on some of my other interviews on the East Coast (I forget exactly how he was brought up, tho). Drawback does seem to be the limited trauma you are going to see in most of your shifts (minus your two months at Cook). Also, I was told NW no longer accepts pts with HMOs. That makes me a little concerned about the variety of pt presentations I would see. It seems to me that this is a GREAT program if you want to do academics. You will be highly connected and published when you leave. If you are looking for bad a** clinical training, I am not sure this is the place.

UIC- I interviewed for EM/IM, so I have a different perspective. My second look was at Masonic, so I can tell you about that ED. They are in the final stages of a facelift there, which looks good. Smaller ED, Level one trauma. It had a really good feel to it. Residents seemed like they were able to manage their patients, but have solid conversations with attendings as needed. I had a really good feeling while I was there, without a lot of facts to support that (no excel sheet for me)

Cincy- Of all the programs I interviewed at (24 total including combined programs), I felt that this one is genuinely bad a**. Great clinical training, with excellent academic opportunities (one of their 4th yr residents is getting a position at the Brigham strait out). My second look was great. All the residents were super friendly, their coordinator is super awesome, and the faculty were really helpful. Plus the resident comradarie was reinforced. The interview day was not an abberation. I was able to sit through one of their resident-faculty meetings at the end of a conference day and I can tell you that the residents there really give feedback into this program. Stettler gives them every opportunity and encourages their input and involvement. If I wasn't thinking EM/IM, this would be my number one.

If you have any last minute Cinci questions, or want another resident's point of view from what you've heard about my program, PM me.

2008 EM Reviews said:

FWIW - I recently had a relatively young (30 yoa) family member slip and fall (yes, while drunk, but she is a senior financial consultant with a huge salary - in other words well insured and reliable from a follow-up standpoint) suffering a significant, 10 cm, full thickness laceration / avulsion to her hip. She bled, passed out and called 911 roughly 8 hours after the fall. Not only did Northwestern not sew her up but she overheard a discussion between the attending and the resident that she felt was the resident (who wanted to sew her) defending her against the attending (who thought she was "just another drunk"). When I saw her the next day, I called a surgical colleague of mine who immediately sutured her. It was one of the first time I was really embarrassed for my profession.

Now, I wasn't there, and I'll never know what was said, but the fact that I had to be embarrassed by a program I'm not affiliated with has left a bad taste in my mouth. Take the anecdote for what you will.

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I am a Northwestern resident and have seen many many of these exact cases. About half the time they are called as traumas from EMS. I would be willing to guess this was a level 2 trauma - especially if the paramedics were concerned about blood "all over the place" (a common phrase we hear over the radio). Because of it being a trauma, the surgery senior and/or attending on would evaluate the patient. Especially since this was a fall while drunk many hours before presenting to the ED, some of the surgery seniors and attendings feel uncomfortable closing these wounds primarily and will follow-up with them in their trauma clinic to determine further wound management. You can convince just about anyone to close most wounds, but it's not always the best thing for the patient. The decision to not suture should have been explained more fully to your family member. All of our attendings, no matter how jaded, would sew up a 10cm laceration in a drunk person if they thought that was the best thing for their health.

In regards to the other post about Northwestern not accepting pts w/ HMOs, that is not really accurate. It is a private hospital, and our outpatient doctors may not accept all insurance - a reality in every non-county hospital in the country. The system is very complicated, and some offices accept more than others. This has absolutely no effect on the patients we see in the emergency department. I see plenty of uninsured patients with diabetic ulcers, and I see plenty of insured patients who overdose on heroin - don't at all worry about the array of patients you will see at private academic centers. You will see everything.

OP - I strongly recommend Northwestern. I'm extremely happy, I work hard, and I know I see more patients (specifically more sick patients) than my friends at other programs in the city. I didn't apply to Cincinnati, as I wanted to be in a large city, but our attendings from there are awesome and loved it. You have a tough decision and a couple of great programs to choose from. Good luck!

2008 EM Reviews said:

Sorry for the redundant threads/posts. I'm looking to rank a handful of programs in OH and IL. I liked them all, but didn't rotate at any of them or second-look any of them. I didn't even see all of the sites for some of them (notably UIC, who claim that the site they interview you at is the oldest ED). I know they're all great programs, but I'm looking for one or two pros/cons for each one from people who know them better than I do, so I can figure out how to rank them.

OK, here goes:

Advocate Christ
Cincinnati
MetroHealth
Northwestern
UIC

I listed them alphabetically. Incidentally, it seems like first three have more online reviews/discussion than the last two, so I guess I feel like I have a better handle on those programs, but I still would appreciate comparisons/contrasts. I am definitely ranking all 5 programs.

Thanks!

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You can PM me if you have any questions about MetroHealth.

mike