Please, do not get confused between Wayne State University and Wayne State affiliated program at Sinai-Grace. The residents at SGH do not rotate downtown at Detroit Receiving/Harper Hospital/VA. I cannot tell you much about the WSU-SGH program b/c I did not rotate there but, I heard that the call schedule is very favorable, something like q5. I don't know about fellowships opportunities for SGH graduates, but I can tell you there are a lot of FMG at that hospital and the program in my understanding is really more of a community program, rather then university based. (This is like Northwestern, main program and NWU evenston, or CWRU and CWRU metrohealth). I did OB/GYN there, I thought this was a very nice urban hospital, around 6 mile Rd (I am sure all of you heard about "8mile", you get my drift). The main wayne state program, like the other person talked about is the main university program. In case you wanted to know about that program the person above did a very good job explaining about the IM residency there. I have to add, that Dr. Levine is great. She is one of the best, and most helpful people downtown. Her husband, Dr. Don Levine, will teach you more about endocarditis then anybody in the world. Of course, if you enter this program you will see a lot of that, especially R sided endocarditis, which reflects the type of patients that you see there. Detroit Receiving is the hospital that serves the poor patients, with a lot of complicated medical problems (but also a lot of social problems, big emphasis). Harper is the "private patient" hospital that is next door to DRH. As far as teaching there, I have to tell you that majority of people that teach there are unbelievably good teachers. One must realize though, that Wayne is the type of program that if you want to learn and want to succeed you will have unlimited opportunities, but you have to work for it, and you will not be spoon-fed. There must be a disclosure that the DMC, the company that is affiliated with WSU and owns all of these hospitals I mentioned, and others, has had major financial problems only a year ago (they were considering closing DRH). They have hired a new CEO, and apparently things have improved thus far. Additionally, the dean of Wayne State Med School has resigned just a few weeks ago, partly over this matter. I have to mention that the new interim dean is great. Dr. Frank is, in my opinion one of the best people for the medical school. I also must mention that the deanship has virtually no influence on the residency program, and realistically, there is virtually no chance of them closing down the DRH b/c the poor people will have no place to go.
As a conclusion WSU and WSU-SGH are different programs. The main WSU program (as well as the medical school) is a solid program that is undergoing some changes. There are great opportunities to really make a difference in a lot of peoples' lives when you work at DRH. The important thing to note is that your career goals/ideologies should coincide with the mission of the program, and that is to serve the indigent population. Yes there are obstacles and there are a lot of social issues that one has to deal with. However, most of the residents there are very competent, very confident, and become great doctors when they finish, I guarantee that. On the other side, if you are not interested in serving the poor, and seeing numerous IVDU and stuff like that, this may be a wrong place for you. Also, if you have a wife/husband and more importantly, children, it may be a little harder to live downtown. The suburbs are great, and you can find a not too expensive place to live. Unfortunately, driving sucks. It is, however, not impossible, b/c I and majority of my class has done it for all 4 years at wayne.
hope this helps.
dennis said:
Dear Friends,
I wonder if you have any insight into what sort of program is this ( IM ).
How good is the IM program?
What is the fellowship placement like?
Is it good to do IM here for those interested in GI later?
Do you get to do any procedures at all eg CVC, swans, or are they all done by the fellows?
Do you learn to manage patients or attendings dictate everything?
Is there a lot of pathology there?
how about private patients and private attendings? is it a problem to learning?
Thanks so much for your insight.
dennis
