Hope Children's Hospital?

[14022]

Anyone know anything about this place? I know it is a stand-alone (i think) children's hospital in south suburbs of Chicago and affiliated with Advocate Christ, but what about other things....reputation, quality of residents, quality of education, research opportunities, fellowship placement, etc???

Also, anyone have any idea of how to do an away elective there during 4th year of medical school? I have tried emailing two people there but have not been able to get a response.

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[jjohnsonanick]

Anyone know anything about this place? I know it is a stand-alone (i think) children's hospital in south suburbs of Chicago and affiliated with Advocate Christ, but what about other things....reputation, quality of residents, quality of education, research opportunities, fellowship placement, etc???

Also, anyone have any idea of how to do an away elective there during 4th year of medical school? I have tried emailing two people there but have not been able to get a response.

I interviewed there. The program director is a really great guy, originally from the University of Michigan. The residents I saw were all extremely happy. They do a Friday morning report every single week that is Jeopardy-format (most places I have rotated at only do something fun like this once a month at most) and it is a riot, all the residents take teams and talk trash, hilarious. I interviewed with a cardiologist who apparently is very well known in the area, and does a lot of basic science research with interested residents. Pretty much every peds residency will tell you their residents can get fellowships anywhere, and this place was no different, though from what I can tell most of the Chicago residents tend to stay in Chicago (who wouldn't), and there are a lot of fellowship opportunities in Chicago.
All of the residents that I met were US grads, although I didn't meet all of them and wouldn't know if there were any FMGs. Many were from the Chicago area itself. I know the residents do some research, don't know how much, they also have a good training in rural ped if interested.

As far as other things, Oak Lawn certainly isn't the prettiest suburb in the Chicagoland area but it is fairly nice. Very close to Midway aiport. Residents live all over the place.

Don't know much about away electives there. I would try calling anyone you can find in the peds office on their website. I know all of those programs have students from all 8 or 9 med schools in Chicago rotating through them at various points on home or away electives, but Hope shouldn't be hard to get into.

Hope this helps, I was just there one day though, so take it with a grain of salt!

 

[14022]

Thanks for the post. What about the hospital itself? The website said it "shares a campus with Advocate Christ." Does this mean it is a stand alone hospital or is it within Christ hospital? I understand it is fairly new. Is it nice on the inside? Does it have access to latest technologies like computerized charting?

 

[jjohnsonanick]

Thanks for the post. What about the hospital itself? The website said it "shares a campus with Advocate Christ." Does this mean it is a stand alone hospital or is it within Christ hospital? I understand it is fairly new. Is it nice on the inside? Does it have access to latest technologies like computerized charting?

It is attached via hallway to the Christ medical center but is its own building. It is considered by the other applicants I talked to as a "stand-alone" children's hospital. It has four floors, the top 3 of wich house patients. It is pretty nice on the inside, not sure how old the building is but it looks much better than the rest of Christ Med Center does.
We were able to take in morning rounds with the program director, which took place inside a pretty nice conference room on the floor, fit about 12 residents and students along with a bunch of applicants (at least 4 of us).
I am not sure about the details, but I think they have a PICU, NICU and Cards fellowships, not certain about that but that is what I remember.

It's been two months and many interviews in between, so I don't remember everything, and apologize for that. I don't think they have computerized charting, the only places I interviewed at that had that were the U of Michigan and Mayo, and some other places that had computerized orders and vitals but not progress notes.

You'll realize once you start interviewing that there are only a couple things you really remember about places, the rest of the details you've written down somewhere, but only a couple really stick with you. What stuck with me about Christ was the awesome PD, the great morning report and the upbeat, almost jovial residents. One applicant I knew from Chicago told me that if he wanted to stay in Chicago, he would rank Christ after Children's Memorial and the U of Chicago in a rank of Chicago programs. Take that with a grain of salt, but he had rotated at all 3 as well as Loyola and Lutheran General. He hadn't rotated at UIC or Rush, so I don't know about those in his eyes.

I personally liked the U of C in Chicago, probably Christ after that, but I didn't interview at Children's Memorial.

Hope this helps!

 

[14022]

thanks so much....good luck with the match!

 

[kristing]

thanks so much....good luck with the match!

I agree with the other poster about Hope. It is a really great place. It was the best run interview day I had, by far. I got a very good impression of the place - unlike a few other places where I didn't go to morning report or didn't see rounds, etc.

The place is all about teaching. I have known a few people who have done rotations there and they all rave about how well done the teaching is. I know it's not to hard to get a rotation there, but I don't know about the housing situation.

It is a happy place, for sure.