In-house Call

[bonadoc]

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I wondered how many programs require in house call? I heard about one that may start to require it and wondered if there were a lot out there.

 

[dragonfly99]

I thought that all cards fellowships had this, until I went around and started interviewing. At my med school and the hospital where I did residency, the cards fellow is pretty much up all night most nights on call, and definitely is in house. At some programs the cards fellow takes all the chest pain calls from the ER and does all the echos and sees all new cardiology admissions, and at most decent sized hospitals that probably will keep you up all night.

The program I'm going to doesn't require in house call, but it's a bit smaller hospital. I'm expecting to be in there a lot, if not all night. Cards just isn't one of the "sleep through the call night" specialties.

 

[P Diddy]

I wondered how many programs require in house call? I heard about one that may start to require it and wondered if there were a lot out there.

Unfortunately there isn't a cardiology fellowship clearinghouse of information, so it's mostly word of mouth. Many cardiology programs label call as 'home call' to get around the 30 hr work requirements. that way, even if the fellow is in house all night (save for 2 hours), they have to stay at work all day post-call. Most of the programs I interviewed at were 'home call' on weekdays, but they varied greatly in terms of actual time spent in house on call. talk to the fellows when you interview to get a better sense of things.

p diddy

 

[cardsfellow2007]

I wondered how many programs require in house call? I heard about one that may start to require it and wondered if there were a lot out there.

We have a night float system - 7pm to 7am Sunday night through Thursday. 4-5 two week blocks spread over the entire fellowship. We see high risk unstable angina patients, NSTEMI's, STEMI's, and Arrhythmia's with the medical resident. Usually we get ~3 hours of sleep each night. The program where I did residency had "home" call, but had to see all CCU admits, in-house consults, and do echo's all night long and then stay until the end of the work day (translation: 36 hour shift). There are some fellowships where you don't get called unless there is a STEMI, but the transition from those fellowships to private practice is apparently quite rough.

 

[tibor75]

Be careful of programs that say at home call - talk to the fellows and see if they are so busy that they are basically in house.

Some programs have required in house call...and pay their fellows to do it.

IMHO, it's a joke that some major academic hospitals don't have a cardiology and a pulmonary fellow in house at all times.

BTW, I just read in the Chicago Tribune that Loyola will have an ATTENDING interventional cardiologist in house at all times (and cath lab staff - not sure about fellow), to decrease door to balloon times. And obviously, for advertising purposes.