Brooklyn Hospital Residency Reviews

[mutjeng2]

Hey all long time lurker first time poster..

I agree with some of the statements above.

Stony Brook was pretty laid back. I got the impression that the PD was very open and pro-resident. No really tough questions they wanted to know if you had any questions for them tho..

Some other impressions
St. Lukes (NYC) -Another laid back place, residents were happy and all the attendings were on a first name basis with the residents. And the housing was phenomenal, I mean can you really chose a residency based on housing?!?:! hmmmm.. I like the idea of splitting shifts at two different sites just cause they give you the idea of two different worlds a. private b. indigent...

LIJ- Also laid back and residents seemed happy and my goodness they're pay is phenomenal. Some residents actually live in manhattan and commute to long island.. can you really chose a residency based on salary.. hmmmm... maybe I'm focused on the benefits too much.. hahahah.. but in all seriousness these are the things that will add up over the next 3-4years.. The ED was okay but not much trauma.. they rotate at jacobi for that experience so I can imagine that they'll see their fair share over there.

SUNY Brooklyn.. Man, this place is a knife an gun club.. lots of trauma and lots of opportunities to do procedures. Residents work their asses off but in general they seem happy that they're in that kind of environment... Attendings on the most part were receptive. Dr. Lucchesi, the chariman is a badass tho.. he teaches and flies through patients and doesn't mind taking on medstudnts throughout his shift. I have a little more to say about this place cause i rotated through here..

Brooklyn Hospital.. small program and didn't get a chance to talk to residents much.. its one of the few places that I had a really bad interview.. i mean i got pimped on "interesting cases you've seen" and I had to make differential for AMS. ugh.. small program and not level1 yet.. but their trauma room is being built now and supposedly should be ready by next year.. cool ultrasound opportunities tho.. one of the attendings is big on US research..

That's all i got for now.. i'm still on the East coast swing.. i'll let everybody know how the rest of them go..

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[beaudubbs]

Does anyone have any specific current info on the Brooklyn Hospital program? I see that the hospital recently filed for chapter 11, and several rennovations to the ed and the hospital as a whole have been pending for a while. The lone scutwork.com review is old but states that the hospital is not yet a level 1 trauma center. However, my current internet searches suggest otherwise. I applied there mainly based on location and some of the advertised curricular highlights, but I am curious for any more insight about the hospital and program.

 

[Dukes]

I can tell you a little about the chapter 11 thing as I rotated there as a med student last year. Basically what happened is that they switched insurance carriers and the old one got pissed and either sued them or demanded the full payment of their contract which amounted to something like 30 million. While this was going on NY was changing its chapter 11 laws or some law and it would have required them to pay out the old insurance in one lump sum so they went ahead and filed for chapter 11 before the new law took effect. It was not a result of the hospital being in financial ruins or anything. Don't get me wrong the hospital is not overflowing with cash either as it is not the most posh of places.

It wasn't a level I trauma center when I was there and would frankly be suprised if it is now but it might have changed. I know that their residents do trauma at Brookdale which is a hole but sees a ton of trauma. Hope this helps.

 

[rbg219]

Any more input on Brooklyn Hospital?

 

[blackavar]

My school's 4th year's provided descriptions on a bunch of places they interviewed at last year, this was the description they provided base on interview cycle 2010-2011:

This is a PGY1-4 program but I am not sure what they get out of the extra year since they have very few elective/research blocks throughout the four years. This program is in the Forte Green part of Brooklyn. The upside of that is that they see tons of good pathology. It is close enough to Manhattan that about ½ of the residents commute from the East Village. It is about a 15 minute drive, 30 minute commute by public transportation. This program is based at a Level 2 trauma center (and not a busy Level 2 that could be level 1 since it was put to me…. “We often see fast track in our trauma bays”.) They see 65,000 patients in their ED a year. The PD admits to limited ancillary support but says that it’s a great opportunity to learn and multitask. They also have very few other residency programs or consultants at the hospital which is also a great opportunity to learn in the ED. The residents work all 12 hour shifts and seem very happy.

 

[kmb1908]

Any updated information about this program?

 

[KetoMike]

Current PGY1 EM resident @ the Brooklyn Hospital Center and I would like to put in my two cents on the program. Our program has gone through major changes in the last few years and continues to grow and become stronger each and everyday. I ranked this place number 1 (of 15 programs) and if I could go back, I would do it again 100x over. I think because it has changed so much, the old posts on SDN about our program are not necessarily the most accurate.

Our strengths IMO include the following:

Incredibly supportive, non-malignant, intelligent, and baddass attendings who let us do cutting edge procedures like femoral nerve blocks for displaced hips or ultrasound guided subclavians (I have already done both as an intern).

Assigned roles as you progress; Intern is airway: aka you get all the intubations day 1 of residency. By the time you are a second year, you can manage a difficult airway. Second years get central lines (except sometimes there is not a second year working in which case, me, the intern, gets to do the central line). Third and forth years are the RICS (residents in charge) and run the ED under the close supervision of attendings. Such a unique aspect of our program.

Ultrasound experience is AMAZING; I came in with zero ultrasound experience and 6 months in I already feel somewhat comfortable with difficult scans like DVT studies, biliary, and transvaginal. The easier scans (cardiac, FAST, Aorta, ocular) I can do in my sleep. I also feel good with ultrasound guided peripheral lines. The funny part is, we do not have the best machines, but we are still really good at scanning and incorporating ultrasound into our patient care. Also we are suppose to be getting new machines.

Our ancillary staff; I think right now we are in the perfect spot. If they were stronger, we wouldn’t be the badass residents that can drop a peripheral line on an unstable patient in 15 seconds. If it were weaker, it might be seen as too much scut work. I would say currently I draw 5-10% of my own labs (attendings from our program in the past state they drew >90%).

The pathology is AMAZING: Hepatic encephalopathy, Measels, TB, ruptured ectopics, chancroid…these are cases I have seen in our less critical green zone (Lol… one was actually in fast track). Imagine what we see on the blue zone shifts with our more critical patients.

Just got 25 million dollars to renovate and expand our ED. Brooklyn bout to become bougie yo.

Small class size means the faculty know everything about us and know how to tailor their teaching to make us stronger. The faculty meet once a month to discuss each and every resident and give them personalized feedback.

Procedure heaven; its a busy community hospital with very sick patients…so we get a ton of procedures. I would guess you get 3x the required number of procedures by the time you leave our program.

NOT being a level 1 trauma center; Why!?!? Because surgery does not take over our traumas. Last month there were 4 ED thoracotomies done by 4 EM residents as the surgeons watched.

Ortho heaven; already done a shoulder reduction, an elbow, and helped out with a hip (CAPTAIN MORGAN ). This is of course after we did a really cool nerve block.

3 zones (fast track, less critical green zone, and very critical blue zone) means we get a diverse experience. I love trauma just as much as any other EM doc, but this cannot be an overwhelming majority of your training because first off, traumas are not that difficult to manage after you have seen enough (you will see more than enough at Brooklyn), and second off, it is not a majority of what you see out in real practice. I love how well balanced our program is and enjoy my fast track shifts just as much as the blue zone shifts.

The trinity of Dr. Williams (PD), Dr. Thompson (APD), and Dr De Souza (Chair of ED) is AMAZING. Fiercest women you will ever meet and I am so proud to work under those QUEENS. They are so down to earth and so committed to making us amazing.

Our entire group of residents is incredibly diverse and amazing and hard working and friendly. I may be skewed, but our intern class is the bomb dot com.

Pediatrics experience is integrated as a third and forth year at our hospital (our PEDs ED is a gold mine for ortho procedures FYI). Also any peds trauma that comes into our ED, regardless of the zone you are working in, is managed by us. We have 2 PEM trained faculty who are great.

Pharmacy residents in our ED: OMG love them. They come to all our traumas and resuscitations and teach us so much. I consult them frequently for antibiotic selection. They also churn out a lot of research and will frequently involve us.

Our patients really really need us and this is why no matter how difficult they may be, I am proud to serve them everyday.

Trendiest place to live on the planet right now: Brooklyn!

You get access to Rosh Review Qbank, True Learn Q bank, PEER VIII Q bank, Brand new copy of Tintanellis, and brand new copy of AAEM Core Curriculum review book. Basically all the resources plus more than you need to pass your boards (100% pass rate since our PD took over).


Negatives:

Cafeteria hours are borderline absurd (open 2 hours for breakfast, lunch and dinner; with no dinner on the weekends). The food is better than most cafeterias IMO (great sushi!). The good news is we are in downtown Brooklyn and there are a million places open 24 hours to deliver food.

Brooklyn living is expensive; fortunately we all help each other find housing and this is a minor problem for me and most of the other residents.

National conferences: other programs will pay for residents to go to 1 national conference. Unfortunately we do not do that UNLESS you are presenting research. I will say this though, it has been brought up that we would like to attend and I am optimistic that one day, we will get to go to national conferences. In the meanwhile, you get to go to all the NYC conferences.

If you love rural, remember, this is Brooklyn NYC (which right now is arguably cooler and more trendy than manhattan). I love it here and couldnt imagine living anywhere else, but I also love loud, happening, busy city life.


Overall, I love it here and wouldn’t want to train at any other program. The job is tough, but we get stronger each and every day and I am beyond excited to see where this program will be in 5 years.

 

[PowerfulAnt]

Current PGY1 EM resident @ the Brooklyn Hospital Center and I would like to put in my two cents on the program. Our program has gone through major changes in the last few years and continues to grow and become stronger each and everyday. I ranked this place number 1 (of 15 programs) and if I could go back, I would do it again 100x over. I think because it has changed so much, the old posts on SDN about our program are not necessarily the most accurate.

Our strengths IMO include the following:

Incredibly supportive, non-malignant, intelligent, and baddass attendings who let us do cutting edge procedures like femoral nerve blocks for displaced hips or ultrasound guided subclavians (I have already done both as an intern).

Assigned roles as you progress; Intern is airway: aka you get all the intubations day 1 of residency. By the time you are a second year, you can manage a difficult airway. Second years get central lines (except sometimes there is not a second year working in which case, me, the intern, gets to do the central line). Third and forth years are the RICS (residents in charge) and run the ED under the close supervision of attendings. Such a unique aspect of our program.

Ultrasound experience is AMAZING; I came in with zero ultrasound experience and 6 months in I already feel somewhat comfortable with difficult scans like DVT studies, biliary, and transvaginal. The easier scans (cardiac, FAST, Aorta, ocular) I can do in my sleep. I also feel good with ultrasound guided peripheral lines. The funny part is, we do not have the best machines, but we are still really good at scanning and incorporating ultrasound into our patient care. Also we are suppose to be getting new machines.

Our ancillary staff; I think right now we are in the perfect spot. If they were stronger, we wouldn’t be the badass residents that can drop a peripheral line on an unstable patient in 15 seconds. If it were weaker, it might be seen as too much scut work. I would say currently I draw 5-10% of my own labs (attendings from our program in the past state they drew >90%).

The pathology is AMAZING: Hepatic encephalopathy, Measels, TB, ruptured ectopics, chancroid…these are cases I have seen in our less critical green zone (Lol… one was actually in fast track). Imagine what we see on the blue zone shifts with our more critical patients.

Just got 25 million dollars to renovate and expand our ED. Brooklyn bout to become bougie yo.

Small class size means the faculty know everything about us and know how to tailor their teaching to make us stronger. The faculty meet once a month to discuss each and every resident and give them personalized feedback.

Procedure heaven; its a busy community hospital with very sick patients…so we get a ton of procedures. I would guess you get 3x the required number of procedures by the time you leave our program.

NOT being a level 1 trauma center; Why!?!? Because surgery does not take over our traumas. Last month there were 4 ED thoracotomies done by 4 EM residents as the surgeons watched.

Ortho heaven; already done a shoulder reduction, an elbow, and helped out with a hip (CAPTAIN MORGAN ). This is of course after we did a really cool nerve block.

3 zones (fast track, less critical green zone, and very critical blue zone) means we get a diverse experience. I love trauma just as much as any other EM doc, but this cannot be an overwhelming majority of your training because first off, traumas are not that difficult to manage after you have seen enough (you will see more than enough at Brooklyn), and second off, it is not a majority of what you see out in real practice. I love how well balanced our program is and enjoy my fast track shifts just as much as the blue zone shifts.

The trinity of Dr. Williams (PD), Dr. Thompson (APD), and Dr De Souza (Chair of ED) is AMAZING. Fiercest women you will ever meet and I am so proud to work under those QUEENS. They are so down to earth and so committed to making us amazing.

Our entire group of residents is incredibly diverse and amazing and hard working and friendly. I may be skewed, but our intern class is the bomb dot com.

Pediatrics experience is integrated as a third and forth year at our hospital (our PEDs ED is a gold mine for ortho procedures FYI). Also any peds trauma that comes into our ED, regardless of the zone you are working in, is managed by us. We have 2 PEM trained faculty who are great.

Pharmacy residents in our ED: OMG love them. They come to all our traumas and resuscitations and teach us so much. I consult them frequently for antibiotic selection. They also churn out a lot of research and will frequently involve us.

Our patients really really need us and this is why no matter how difficult they may be, I am proud to serve them everyday.

Trendiest place to live on the planet right now: Brooklyn!

You get access to Rosh Review Qbank, True Learn Q bank, PEER VIII Q bank, Brand new copy of Tintanellis, and brand new copy of AAEM Core Curriculum review book. Basically all the resources plus more than you need to pass your boards (100% pass rate since our PD took over).


Negatives:

Cafeteria hours are borderline absurd (open 2 hours for breakfast, lunch and dinner; with no dinner on the weekends). The food is better than most cafeterias IMO (great sushi!). The good news is we are in downtown Brooklyn and there are a million places open 24 hours to deliver food.

Brooklyn living is expensive; fortunately we all help each other find housing and this is a minor problem for me and most of the other residents.

National conferences: other programs will pay for residents to go to 1 national conference. Unfortunately we do not do that UNLESS you are presenting research. I will say this though, it has been brought up that we would like to attend and I am optimistic that one day, we will get to go to national conferences. In the meanwhile, you get to go to all the NYC conferences.

If you love rural, remember, this is Brooklyn NYC (which right now is arguably cooler and more trendy than manhattan). I love it here and couldnt imagine living anywhere else, but I also love loud, happening, busy city life.


Overall, I love it here and wouldn’t want to train at any other program. The job is tough, but we get stronger each and every day and I am beyond excited to see where this program will be in 5 years.

Thank you so much for the in-depth review. This just convinced me to do my 4th-year AI at Brooklyn Hospital. See you in August!

 

[Hamhock]

Current PGY1 EM resident @ the Brooklyn Hospital Center and I would like to put in my two cents on the program. Our program has gone through major changes in the last few years and continues to grow and become stronger each and everyday. I ranked this place number 1 (of 15 programs) Intern is airway: aka you get all the intubations day 1 of residency. By the time you are a second year, you can manage a difficult airway.

I'll leave the rest of your post; but know that I can't get past this early bold-underlined nonsense statement.

Cher, please.

No second-year resident can handle the difficult airway. None. Definitely not the EM resident at Brooklyn Hospital Center.

The validity of your 'review' is doubtful based on this early nonsense.

Ornery but honest,
HH

 

[miacomet]

Sketchy, sketchy hospital. 'Nuff said.