Community hospital reputations

[Kate D]

As an IMG, I'm pretty far outside of the 'loop' of medical students and I've never been to most of these places and have no connections and nobody to ask advice of. I've researched the websites and scutwork, but I don't have any sense of whether a program has a good or bad reputation. I have interviews at the following places and would like to know if any of the programs are well-known as being good or terrible:

Roger Williams
Memorial Hosp. RI
Danbury
Bridgeport
St. Vincent - Bridgeport
Norwalk
Caritas St. Elizabeth
Berkshire
Geisinger
Graduate Hosp
St. Lukes - Bethlehem
Univ Nevada Reno
Providence Portland
Providence St. Vincent

I would be happy doing primary care or working as a hospitalist, but I'd love the option of a fellowship too. I know these aren't the most prestigious bunch of programs, but I'm certain something in there will be great for me. Any thoughts?

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[irlandesa]

I'm a Tufts student who rotated through Caritas-St. E's and can tell you a bit more about it. The good news is that this program is on the upswing with a new dept. chair and residency director, and the Cardiology and Nephrology depts. are outstanding. Also plenty of opportunities for residents to teach medical students, and most are enthusiastic and excellent teachers. Attendings are great, and ward call schedules are more than reasonable. Disadvantages of this program include a)ward structure is set up so that the team on the telemetry floor ends up capping early on long call and having to continue to admit until night float arrives, while the other ward teams sit around and do nothing. b)new PD is incredibly bright and a great teacher, but is new, relatively inexperienced in the job, and quite overextended (the entire time I was at St. E's, he did not have time to attend a single AM report, and presides over the evaluations and teaching of ~15 different students each month as well as the residency program and some ICU work). c)Facilities are not up to date; limited seating space in chart areas, echo results are not placed online for >72 hrs so you have to go and copy the results by hand, and the residents and attendings have yet to get text pagers. Morning report is quite good, but there are not enough chairs available, making it crowded and uncomfortable for everyone to participate (the chief residents when I was there were also not particularly enthusiastic). All of these things made me decide not to apply to St. E's, but if you are looking to stay in the Boston area, it is a decent option and people seem to get good fellowships. Other community based programs up here that are good are Salem Hospital (opportunity to rotate through BWH and/or MGH), Lahey Clinic (university/community mix with great fellowship programs), and Maine Medical Center (ME is beautiful, what can I say). I have to say that my favorite "IMG friendly" program so far is UMass in Worcester, which is an impressive university-based program that will probably end up being one of my top choices. Good luck!

 

[Kate D]

Thanks for your suggestions. As a lesbian with a partner and two little kids, I am looking at socially progressive areas where my family will not have problems and MA sure fits the bill. Unfortunately, U Mass didn't offer me an interview and didn't even bother to reject me! But, as I said, I've never even been to the east coast, so I really have no idea what it's like.
Thank you though!

 

[mediocre]

i did a medicine rotation at Norwalk Hospital as a 3rd year med student and liked it a lot. Had a tough senior, but I learned a lot. It's location is pretty idea...small town feel with enough ammenities, but close enough to NYC. They even provide subsidized housing for really cheap just across the street from the hospital. I think the affiliation with Yale gives the program some good credibility. I have to say that I personally did not interview there, but I'm not really an East Coast person either. CT is pretty socially liberal, but not as much as Boston, NYC, or SF.

 

[irlandesa]

Thanks for your suggestions. As a lesbian with a partner and two little kids, I am looking at socially progressive areas where my family will not have problems and MA sure fits the bill. Unfortunately, U Mass didn't offer me an interview and didn't even bother to reject me! But, as I said, I've never even been to the east coast, so I really have no idea what it's like.
Thank you though!

No problem.. I really like the fact that Boston is a socially progressive area as well, and would love to stay here for residency. However, I'd caution that although the new PD is very liberal and open, the environment at St. E's itself still has a way to go. B/c of it's affiliation with and funding it receives from the Archdiocese of Boston, residents are forbidden to prescribe contraception for their patients in any kind of setting, and can be censured for doing so. Also, many of the Medicine residents are from cultures and countries that have traditionally not been accepting of homosexuality, interracial marriage, etc. While I certainly wouldn't characterize the residents as intolerant or bigoted (I didn't see any of that attitude while I was there), this may be something to keep in mind (though it probably is true of other places as well).

 

[ntmed]

I have interviews at the following places and would like to know if any of the programs are well-known as being good or terrible ... Any thoughts?

One thing I looked at was the ABIM pass rate of each program I was considering. While the pass rate isn't everything, at least it's an objective measurement of a program's quality or the quality of the residents who go there.

http://www.abim.org/passrate/passindex.htm

 

[questioner]

Hi --

I'm a US med student who interviewed at Providence Portland last week. I would definitely recommend checking it out. I also interviewed at OHSU and the PD there mentioned Providence as having strong residents. 100% ABIM pass rate over six years, great people (maybe 80-90% US medical grads), lots of nontraditional types, humane program, value primary care but the residents get fellowships if they want them. I'll consider ranking it over OHSU if moving to Oregon is in the cards.