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Never done one of these before but I rotated at Henry Ford and haven't found a single review for the place on this website which to me is amazing so here goes:
Residents: A great group of easy-going, friendly residents. You would never guess that they work as hard as they do based on their demeanor. I got to know more of the 3rd yr residents than any of the other classes while I rotated there and the story I most frequently heard when I asked "Why Henry Ford?" was that they rotated there as 4th yr med students, loved it and ranked it number 1. The night before the interview they take you to a nice restaurant at the Renaissance Center downtown (the biggest building in the city, the one you see when they do skyline shots at Detroit sporting events) and it was good times and a great meal.
Faculty: The PD is Dr. Lewandowski and he is quite honestly one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. He's been there forever (a lifer as he terms it) and every single one of the residents love the guy. Despite being so nice, he is no pushover, if an off-service is keeping a resident from conference, Lewandowski makes a phone call and that resident is at conference in 5min. Dr. Rivers is also on staff at Henry Ford and he is nicer than he is smart which is obviously saying something. Dr. Gerard Martin is the new dept chair and by all accounts he is very easy to work and get along with. In the month that i spent there I only ever heard the residents complain about working w/ 1 of the 30+ staff physicians...not a bad batting average.
Interview Day: Relaxed (aren't they all this way in EM??? What a great field!). The day starts at 10am w/ the obligatory slide show presentation w/ the PD. That is followed by a tour of the brand new sim center that is totally state of the art and many, many more superlatives. You interview w/ 3 faculty members (inclduing the PD) after lunch and they are benign. Last part of the day is a tour of the ED which is massive and sprawling and usually FILLED w/ patients.
Hospital: Henry Ford is a special place, it is a nearly 1000 bed free-standing, loosely affiliated academic medical center (w/ the full compliment of residency programs) in the middle of a major urban city. There are more ICU beds here than anywhere else in the country and they are ALWAYS full. It is the busiest level 1 trauma center in the state and has the busiest transplant service in the state...etc, etc, etc.
You do all of your rotations there except for some Peds ED and Peds anesthesia at Children's Hospital of Michigan down the street at the Detroit Medical Center. Children's is a top 10 pediatric hospital.
Ancillary Staff: awesome. I had a patient there who I saw being wheeled into his room, and I said to the resident there is no way that tech is getting that IV started on this vasculopath. 5min later i walk back to see the guy and he has an IV in his forehead. Enough said. They have radiology in the department (2 CT scanners), and also Psych/Social work in the department.
Admitting/Documentation: paperless charting is new, but they've had electronic orders and patient tracking, and a network that logs all patient visits w/in the Henry Ford Health System (it is immense) for sometime now. Admitting patients is not a problem as medicine doesn't even see patients in the ED, the EM residents simply call report on a pt and then there are people at the other end that make sure that your patient(s) meet admission criteria, etc. There are no battles over admitting patients.
Curriculum: 3yr curriculum. 2 medicine wards months on the cardiology and nephrology services (no general medicine) and 3 ED mos as an intern. I'm unsure on what the rest of the intern yr consists of but just thought i would mention the medicine wards since that seems to be a huge turnoff to some people these days. As a 2nd yr you are responsible for all procedures and airway on medical recuscitations and trauma, and as a 3rd yr you run these. You also do a second SICU month as a 3rd yr where you are a supervising resident, this is your only month of call during the 3rd yr which i feel is worth mentioning since many other programs have no call during the 3rd yr.
In the ED you work 10hr shifts, approx 21-22/month. Residents no longer do dictations which has apparently decreased the amt of time they are spending at the hospital after their shift has officially ended.
Didatics/Research: conference is every thursday noon-5p. They are very laid back and, at least for the interns are a reunion of sorts since there are a lot of off-service months during the intern yr. Research opportunities are abundant, Dr. Rivers is the research director and is (obviously) very active on that front. No formal resident research project is required, but each resident has access to $5000 for reasearch while they are there through some grant funding from the hospital. The hospital itself is in the top 6% of all institutions in terms of funding granted by the NIH and US Public Health Service.
City: Detroit is Detroit, love it or leave it. For people not familiar w/ the city there has definitely been a resurgence in the Foxtown/stadium district w/ the Tigers and Lions both opening new stadiums recently and a big influx of bars/restaurants/business in that area. Most of the residents live in the suburbs (Royal Oak, Troy,etc ) and the commute is very reasonable, esp for residents who don't exactly have 9-5 jobs.
Salary/Benefits/etc: I don't remember what the salary was, you can look it up if you are so inclined. One cool perk is that you can take part in the Ford X plan and buy Ford, Lincoln, Mercury, or Mazda cars at a discounted rate.
Negatives: Detroit is probably a deal-breaker for most, definitely not for me but it's easily the most frequently cited negative by applicants. A lot of the 3rd yrs are from or have ties to the Detroit area, but fewer of the 2nd yrs and even fewer interns do; so that may be reflecting applicant's changing attitudes towards Detroit, or it may be a reflection of increasing national recognition of the program. This is not a "cush" residency so if that is what you are looking for this place is definitely not for you. If you are a whacker and pre-hospital care is your thing and you for sure know this is what you want to do w/ your life, then there are better programs than Henry Ford for you.
Overall: An amazing program and were it not in Detroit it would probably be the most competitive place in the country to get into. Anyone who graduates from here will be able to get a great job anywhere in the country and be ready to manage (not just "see", but manage and take care of) the sickest patients you can find. I can't emphasize enough how aggressive they are in taking care of these sick patients in the ED, other places will talk about how you will "see" so many sick patients, but here at Ford you get to aggressively treat them and you are their doctor, period, no strings attached. It's a special place and needless to say I will be ranking it VERY high on my list.
Residents: A great group of easy-going, friendly residents. You would never guess that they work as hard as they do based on their demeanor. I got to know more of the 3rd yr residents than any of the other classes while I rotated there and the story I most frequently heard when I asked "Why Henry Ford?" was that they rotated there as 4th yr med students, loved it and ranked it number 1. The night before the interview they take you to a nice restaurant at the Renaissance Center downtown (the biggest building in the city, the one you see when they do skyline shots at Detroit sporting events) and it was good times and a great meal.
Faculty: The PD is Dr. Lewandowski and he is quite honestly one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. He's been there forever (a lifer as he terms it) and every single one of the residents love the guy. Despite being so nice, he is no pushover, if an off-service is keeping a resident from conference, Lewandowski makes a phone call and that resident is at conference in 5min. Dr. Rivers is also on staff at Henry Ford and he is nicer than he is smart which is obviously saying something. Dr. Gerard Martin is the new dept chair and by all accounts he is very easy to work and get along with. In the month that i spent there I only ever heard the residents complain about working w/ 1 of the 30+ staff physicians...not a bad batting average.
Interview Day: Relaxed (aren't they all this way in EM??? What a great field!). The day starts at 10am w/ the obligatory slide show presentation w/ the PD. That is followed by a tour of the brand new sim center that is totally state of the art and many, many more superlatives. You interview w/ 3 faculty members (inclduing the PD) after lunch and they are benign. Last part of the day is a tour of the ED which is massive and sprawling and usually FILLED w/ patients.
Hospital: Henry Ford is a special place, it is a nearly 1000 bed free-standing, loosely affiliated academic medical center (w/ the full compliment of residency programs) in the middle of a major urban city. There are more ICU beds here than anywhere else in the country and they are ALWAYS full. It is the busiest level 1 trauma center in the state and has the busiest transplant service in the state...etc, etc, etc.
You do all of your rotations there except for some Peds ED and Peds anesthesia at Children's Hospital of Michigan down the street at the Detroit Medical Center. Children's is a top 10 pediatric hospital.
Ancillary Staff: awesome. I had a patient there who I saw being wheeled into his room, and I said to the resident there is no way that tech is getting that IV started on this vasculopath. 5min later i walk back to see the guy and he has an IV in his forehead. Enough said. They have radiology in the department (2 CT scanners), and also Psych/Social work in the department.
Admitting/Documentation: paperless charting is new, but they've had electronic orders and patient tracking, and a network that logs all patient visits w/in the Henry Ford Health System (it is immense) for sometime now. Admitting patients is not a problem as medicine doesn't even see patients in the ED, the EM residents simply call report on a pt and then there are people at the other end that make sure that your patient(s) meet admission criteria, etc. There are no battles over admitting patients.
Curriculum: 3yr curriculum. 2 medicine wards months on the cardiology and nephrology services (no general medicine) and 3 ED mos as an intern. I'm unsure on what the rest of the intern yr consists of but just thought i would mention the medicine wards since that seems to be a huge turnoff to some people these days. As a 2nd yr you are responsible for all procedures and airway on medical recuscitations and trauma, and as a 3rd yr you run these. You also do a second SICU month as a 3rd yr where you are a supervising resident, this is your only month of call during the 3rd yr which i feel is worth mentioning since many other programs have no call during the 3rd yr.
In the ED you work 10hr shifts, approx 21-22/month. Residents no longer do dictations which has apparently decreased the amt of time they are spending at the hospital after their shift has officially ended.
Didatics/Research: conference is every thursday noon-5p. They are very laid back and, at least for the interns are a reunion of sorts since there are a lot of off-service months during the intern yr. Research opportunities are abundant, Dr. Rivers is the research director and is (obviously) very active on that front. No formal resident research project is required, but each resident has access to $5000 for reasearch while they are there through some grant funding from the hospital. The hospital itself is in the top 6% of all institutions in terms of funding granted by the NIH and US Public Health Service.
City: Detroit is Detroit, love it or leave it. For people not familiar w/ the city there has definitely been a resurgence in the Foxtown/stadium district w/ the Tigers and Lions both opening new stadiums recently and a big influx of bars/restaurants/business in that area. Most of the residents live in the suburbs (Royal Oak, Troy,etc ) and the commute is very reasonable, esp for residents who don't exactly have 9-5 jobs.
Salary/Benefits/etc: I don't remember what the salary was, you can look it up if you are so inclined. One cool perk is that you can take part in the Ford X plan and buy Ford, Lincoln, Mercury, or Mazda cars at a discounted rate.
Negatives: Detroit is probably a deal-breaker for most, definitely not for me but it's easily the most frequently cited negative by applicants. A lot of the 3rd yrs are from or have ties to the Detroit area, but fewer of the 2nd yrs and even fewer interns do; so that may be reflecting applicant's changing attitudes towards Detroit, or it may be a reflection of increasing national recognition of the program. This is not a "cush" residency so if that is what you are looking for this place is definitely not for you. If you are a whacker and pre-hospital care is your thing and you for sure know this is what you want to do w/ your life, then there are better programs than Henry Ford for you.
Overall: An amazing program and were it not in Detroit it would probably be the most competitive place in the country to get into. Anyone who graduates from here will be able to get a great job anywhere in the country and be ready to manage (not just "see", but manage and take care of) the sickest patients you can find. I can't emphasize enough how aggressive they are in taking care of these sick patients in the ED, other places will talk about how you will "see" so many sick patients, but here at Ford you get to aggressively treat them and you are their doctor, period, no strings attached. It's a special place and needless to say I will be ranking it VERY high on my list.
