Beth Israel (BIMC) Vs. NYHQ?

[MrBling]

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I liked both programs, and both are ranked fairly highly (top 5).. but I'm having trouble on which to rank a higher.

Both ERs were alittle cramped and both have a fairly diverse population. I thought the residents and faculty at BIMC were extremely friendly but wasn't thrilled about their peds exposure (seems their peds ER has fairly low volume, although you get to spend a 2 months at jacobi).. they are also level II trauma, but you have a few months over at elmhurst (undecided if thats a + or - yet.. not to ding elmhurst, b/c i loved it when i went there for sinai's interview, just feel that i might feel more comfortable with fairly consistent exposure to management of traumas).

I liked NYHQ and feel they have great pathology and diversity, plus they are level I (with a month in NV).. if anything, a negative is probably their location in flushing. Not sure how their peds exposure is relative to BIMC.

Any thoughts/insights from people who have seen both places?

 

[TakayaSue]

I liked both programs as well, would have ranked them both super-high if it wasn't for the fact that I was looking to get out of NYC for residency. I think trauma is perfectly adequate at both places -- at BI you do several rotations at Elmhurst, which is a very well-run trauma center with a good mix of pathology (knife, gun, ped struck, fall, etc.). At NYHQ, the program itself is a level 1, so any given shift you could be putting in a chest tube, or whatever. But realistically, it's a lower volume place, so you don't get as much, and at least when I was there last year -- the NYHQ traumas weren't running like a well-oiled machine, the way they do at higher volume centers. The LV experience more than compensates for this, though. As far as peds, I think NYHQ has a legit peds ER with peds-EM attendings and decent pathology. I think it is much more important to see a regular flow of sick kids throughout residency than it is to see awesome trauma regularly. Trauma is pretty cookbook after your 10th chest tube and 3rd thoracotomy -- super-sick kids will terrify you for the rest of your life, and you need to get comfortable with common complaints of not-so-sick kids, as that will be ~20% of your patients out in most nromal community ED's.

I think both programs have really warm, supportive faculty and cool, down-to-earth, diverse housestaff. A good mix of folks from around the NYC area and across the country at both places. Everyone seemed to get along really well as a class. Both have good salary and benefits (i.e. housing). Both are pretty diverse patient populations, though I got the feeling that NYHQ had a LOT of Mandarin- or Korean-only patients, which was kind of a negative for me (I spent years learning Spanish, and knew I'd get to use that a lot more at BI, Elmhurst, and Jacobi).

I ended up ranking NYHQ higher because I had slightly better chemistry with the people and I didn't want to deal with the expense of living in Manhattan (esp. once BI got rid of their best housing building), when I could pay subsidized rent in Queens and just go out to Manhattan when I wanted to do the nightlife thing. This is what a lot of my friends at Jacobi do -- pay super-low rent, and they're about an hour away from Manhattan by Subway. You definitely can't go wrong with either program. Good luck!

I liked both programs, and both are ranked fairly highly (top 5).. but I'm having trouble on which to rank a higher.

Both ERs were alittle cramped and both have a fairly diverse population. I thought the residents and faculty at BIMC were extremely friendly but wasn't thrilled about their peds exposure (seems their peds ER has fairly low volume, although you get to spend a 2 months at jacobi).. they are also level II trauma, but you have a few months over at elmhurst (undecided if thats a + or - yet.. not to ding elmhurst, b/c i loved it when i went there for sinai's interview, just feel that i might feel more comfortable with fairly consistent exposure to management of traumas).

I liked NYHQ and feel they have great pathology and diversity, plus they are level I (with a month in NV).. if anything, a negative is probably their location in flushing. Not sure how their peds exposure is relative to BIMC.

Any thoughts/insights from people who have seen both places?