Good Checklist to Rank Programs with?

[RainerMaria]

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This has been discussed before but only example I've heard of is Isserson's, which is so-so. I decided to take his checklist and ammend it. Curious if other people are doing the same, and if I'm missing anything here. Don't worry, gut feeling is in there.


Factors Weight Score Notes
TOTAL
Positive gut feeling MUST
adeq. health insurance MUST
disability MUST
liability / malpractice ins MUST
Decent ABIM pass rate > 80 MUST
# Gold w/e in PG1 10
Gut ranking 10
Happiness of residents 10
Espirit de corps 9
Family friendliness / work-life balance 9
If >2mo Q3 call , at least 1 g.w. 9
% time discharge paperwork, signout 9
low cost of living 8
closeness to home 8
Fellowship in PCCM, Hem Onc 8
admit caps, short call 8
EHR 8
% of teaching patients (vs. private) 8
call schedule 7
school of public health 7
faculty::resident ratio 7
On call schedule 7
faculty availability 7
care 7
vacation 7
NCI hospital 6
Level 1 Trauma center 6
Research opportunities 6
4+1 ambulatory clinic 6
responsibility 5
Good didactics 5
ancillary support 5
safety/security 5
PD / chair stability 4
Patient population 3
setting 3
Program age and stability 3
Salary 3
educ. funding 2
volume 2
part of country 2
specific city 2
no restrictive covenant ?

 

[Siverhideo1985]

Looks pretty good to me, location is much more important to me though...I have to thrive on the enviornment.

Also, gut feeling will trump anything and everything else on my objective list.

Overall, I think lists like this will help tease out the ranking of your very top programs if you don't have a clear favorite.

 

[doobiedoobah]

Looks great, but I would add in a few things. 1) how often you admit, and until what time.

At one hospital where I just rotated teams admitted every day and until 6 pm. Almost every day (unless we were at our max) we seemed to get hit with at least 2, but usually 4-5 admissions right at 5:59. Technically you can sign out to night float at 7 pm, but almost every intern and quite a few residents seemed to be there until 9-10 pm finishing their admissions, and then still had to finish the rest of their paperwork at home. It was horrible.

2) Is the PD a physician

When the PD is a physician rather than an MBA etc it seems to alleviate some of the disconnect between administration and house staff. From my experience, things seem to run a lot smoother as well because the PD will have an understanding of how things function in reality rather than just theoretically.

 

[RustedKOD]

What about the cafeteria food?

 

[gutonc]

2) Is the PD a physician

When the PD is a physician rather than an MBA etc it seems to alleviate some of the disconnect between administration and house staff. From my experience, things seem to run a lot smoother as well because the PD will have an understanding of how things function in reality rather than just theoretically.

Wait...what program has a non-physician as a program director? I'm pretty sure that's unpossible.

 

[doobiedoobah]

Wait...what program has a non-physician as a program director? I'm pretty sure that's unpossible.

Oops, you're right. Sorry. Maybe I meant practicing physician vs some mostly interested in administration. I don't know how you would really figure that out though.

 

[james87]

sorry for being a noob about this, but how do you use this checklist? are you supposed to rate the programs out of available points for each category and then sum the ratings?

 

[RainerMaria]

sorry for being a noob about this, but how do you use this checklist? are you supposed to rate the programs out of available points for each category and then sum the ratings?

It's not that clear from my post because the formatting is all off, but the idea is you create four columns. You multiply the weight of the factor by a 1-10 score of what that program got. So if camraderie is weighted at 10, and program X has a 2 but program Y has a 9, the scores for that section will be 20 and 90, respectively.

And the "MUST" sections are just checklists to make sure they have basic things (food, water, so to speak). If not, then that is a red flag or however you want to mark it.

Basically, this is probably not going to trump one's gut feeling about a place, but it reminds us what to ask about that we'll want to know for peace of mind sake.