Ckent.. I'm like you, not interested in Cardiology. But, it speaks a little to the strength of a program when you can be at an academic center in a major city and not see caths at your home hospital. There's not much good to that.
I'm thinking about GI, so the other pertinent thing for me is that GT also lost half of their GI fellowship spots this past academic year (down to 2 per year now).
That said, it never hurts to visit a place. And, a nice, free lunch is as good a reason as any make a pit stop. I rotated there for an elective and can confirm, objectively, that it's a dump. The people are very nice, and the residents are happy and not overworked (at least on elective). The students are well trained. The proximity to downtown DC is great.
But, it's a pretty antiquated place with no PACS, a DOS based computer system (no kidding), and the lowest resident salary in the Baltimore/DC area. The radiology departement is unbelievable. It's a little room with these old, 30 year old x-ray machines where you push a foot pedal and a John Deere tractor sounding motor cranks the X-rays around. You have to talk louder until your X-ray rolls around. It's so funny.
But, all kidding aside, there's simply nothing in the way of perks. I know you can't let physical plant dictate your rank list, but it's a pretty weak physical plant, and there are other, real reasons to downgrade GT. It says a lot that I liked the attendings, house officers, etc. as much as I did, but couldn't imagine residency there. GT may turn it around one day, but the word is interventional cath will not return b/c of financial reasons with the parent company, and there's simply no money to renovate the place. So for bottom line purposes, what you see now is what you get for our residency years. If a GT renaissance occurs, it's after our time. And the near future is negtive, not positive.
I'm not even interviewing.
DC is a good enough city to warrant the trip, but look hard at what you're buying into for 3 years.
Good luck..
