How important are prestigious hospitals?

[Jeffy]

CC, Mass Gen, UCLA, Hopkins, . . . All great hospitals with great programs. But how do they impact medical students - or better yet, should they even be a factor when picking a medical school? I'm sure that med students do their rotations in these hospitals but do they even get to do anything or have many hands-on experiences because of the fact that they're such noteworthy places with a ton of hot shots? Or, is this something that's more important for residents?

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[Jeffy]

For example: UCLA -vs- USC.

UCLA is a big prestigious hospital that gets top-rankings and so forth. USC on the other hand has County, which sees everything. Which option is better for a medical student? Seems to me like low-on-the-totem medical students wouldn't get much action at one of these top hospitals with demigod MD's compared to students at a low-income hospital like Cook County or something like that. Can anyone help out with this?

 

[bridge01]

tough call. i think its good to get a school that has connections to both kinds - VA's for example, university hospitals, etc. another thing to consider is that med students learn from residents so going to a hospital that has good residents is important.

 

[SanDiegoSOD]

For example: UCLA -vs- USC.

UCLA is a big prestigious hospital that gets top-rankings and so forth. USC on the other hand has County, which sees everything. Which option is better for a medical student? Seems to me like low-on-the-totem medical students wouldn't get much action at one of these top hospitals with demigod MD's compared to students at a low-income hospital like Cook County or something like that. Can anyone help out with this?

If you want to be an ER doc, go to USC. County, like you said, sees everything. County sees more cases of Leprosy than any hospital in the nation. Yes, I said leprosy, the ancient plague that should have been eradicated long ago.

 

[PostalWookie]

Look for a school that has its own top-notch fancy hospital and allows you to rotate out to affiliated public hospital for hardcore expriences (like NYU). SO you might want to do your neuro or something at a hospital with the best academic people, but do emergency medicine at a county hospital just for the sake of getting the exprience.

 

[Jeffy]

So does it really just depend on what it is you eventually wanna do? If you wanna do Rads, go to a big name academic hospital, if ya wanna treat the masses go to an urban public facility? Of course, this is all assuming one knows (which no one does) what they wanna do before picking a medical school.

 

[PostalWookie]

The benefit of picking a school that has both types of hospitals is that you get all kinds of experiences - either it will help you pick an area of medicine or maybe it will change your mind about what you think you want to do as of now

 

[lightnk102]

i think from a medical student perspective, it's more important to get exposure to lots of things. So, in the case of UCLA vs. USC, i'd go with USC. i'd say the big name top-ranked hospital is more important for residency. so get your training somewhere where you can actually -do- things, and then apply for residency at a top-ranked hospital.

 

[Jeffy]

i think from a medical student perspective, it's more important to get exposure to lots of things. So, in the case of UCLA vs. USC, i'd go with USC. i'd say the big name top-ranked hospital is more important for residency. so get your training somewhere where you can actually -do- things, and then apply for residency at a top-ranked hospital.

Yeah, see that's what I assumed that the logical standpoint would be. But I also feel like I do not know enough about the clinical years and residency and that I may be missing something here. Plus, I'm also sure that there are a few gunners out here that would make the case that the best place to do everything is at Mass Gen because they have small penises and always look for a way to brag and impress.

 

[VienneseWaltz]

i think from a medical student perspective, it's more important to get exposure to lots of things. So, in the case of UCLA vs. USC, i'd go with USC. i'd say the big name top-ranked hospital is more important for residency. so get your training somewhere where you can actually -do- things, and then apply for residency at a top-ranked hospital.

Yes, but how do you get that top residency? There are ortho programs that will not interview you if they haven't heard of/don't know your recommenders. (This isn't a rumor, by the way--it's coming from someone on a residency committee). As someone from an unprestigious public undergrad, I find this kind of it's-who-you-know process disturbing, but apparently it's reality.

There are a ton of people from less highly ranked med schools who get great residencies, but that's not necessarily the norm. If you really want that superstar residency, I would go to a top med school if you have the option. Keep in mind, though, that there is no correlation between attending salary and residency prestige. If you want to go into private practice, just go where your cheapest/happiest options are.

As for the OP's question, as someone mentioned, the top programs tend to have multiple hospitals affiliated, so you get to watch (not handle) the fascinating, rare cases (which is still better than reading about them), and you get more hands-on experience with bread-and-butter cases in the community hospital.

In a nutshell, I would not base the decision on either a) what you think you want to go into now, or b) what you think you will be allowed to "do," as this will vary greatly even within an institution depending on the case, the clerkship, and your teachers.

 

[lightnk102]

As for the OP's question, as someone mentioned, the top programs tend to have multiple hospitals affiliated, so you get to watch (not handle) the fascinating, rare cases (which is still better than reading about them), and you get more hands-on experience with bread-and-butter cases in the community hospital.

This is a very good point that I hadn't considered. Though, I also wouldn't consider community hospitals to be filled with "bread and butter" cases. Community hospitals usually cater to an underserved population, so you get to see advanced cases of more "common" diseases (like heart disease and such) that you may not find ias often in prestigious private hospitals with wealthy clientele that have good access to preventive medicine and care.

I feel like it's almost better to see an advanced case of a common disease because your'e likely to see that common disease again in your career. Seeing one case of a very rare disease may have its novelty value, but is utterly a trinket unless you plan to specialize in that particular rare case and will be seeing a lot of it.

I'm not arguing that brand-name doesn't count for anything - becuase unfortunately, it does. Since the example of USC vs. UCLA was brought up, I assumed that we're talking about two good schools, one top ranked but the other still competitive. there are no "bad" med schools, but obviously - if you're trying to decide between harvard and bottom-ranked-med-school-with-better-clinical-exposure, no questions asked i would choose harvard.

however, if two schools are equally balanced in your esteem and the differentiating factor is hospitals, then i think it's a tougher call.

 

[exmike]

I really think you're going out on a limb if you think that you'll necessarily get to do more and see more at a county hospital vs. Mans Greatest Hospital. Granted, the ivory tower medical center will see more rare and exotic cases, but what makes you think that they dont treat run of the mill patients either?

When you think about the prestige of a medical school, it is pretty much correllated with the quality of the hospital. Your M1/M2 preclinical years are pretty much standard from school to school. What sets schools apart is the clinical experience. When you are rotating at the cleveland clinic or johns hopkins hospital, you'll be instructed by physicians who are the very best in their fields. Youll use the latest technology and techniques, and you'll see breakthrough procedures that may eventually become the standard of care. But you'll also see the bread and butter cases that makes them 'hospitals'.

I find it hard to believe that you would benefit from going to a "lower" school that has a hospital in the ghetto. Where do you think all the gunshot and infectious diseases patients in east baltimore go? Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Lastly, if you really want a get your elbows deep in grease experience, its almost a certainty that the top medical schools are affiliated with some county hospital or community hospital where you can rotate and *supposedly* see more bread and butter cases. For example, if you dont care that cleveland clinic has the best heart care program in the US, you're are welcome to do you rotations at Metro Health in downtown cleveland, which will give you as urban of an experience as anywhere else.