Inova Fairfax Hospital Surgical Residency

[Eire]

I am trying to find out if anyone knows anything about this program. They are new (starting this year). I know that they are a community program, they were affiliated with Georgetown and George Washington Univ. Has anyone rotated there, if so can you tell me a little about it..the program etc. What is the PD and faculty like and will the residents that are there now continue to fill the upper level slots until their first class has advanced.

Thanks for any help.

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[southerndoc]

Originally posted by Eire
I am trying to find out if anyone knows anything about this program. They are new (starting this year). I know that they are a community program, they were affiliated with Georgetown and George Washington Univ. Has anyone rotated there, if so can you tell me a little about it..the program etc. What is the PD and faculty like and will the residents that are there now continue to fill the upper level slots until their first class has advanced.

Inova Health System is a pretty good healthcare system. They own several hospitals, Inova Fairfax being the biggest and busiest. It serves as a Level I Trauma Center.

Inova should be adding a lot of residencies soon (so far they only offer peds, surgery, and I think medicine). The Medical College of Virginia supposedly is launching a campus there. I'm assuming it's just a clerkship campus.

More info is at www.inova.org

I'm considering returning to the area (Alexandria or Fairfax County) once I finish residency. I love it there!

 

[Eire]

Thanks, geek medic. I will check out that link. Anyone else have any info from rotating there?

 

[FDNewbie]

I am trying to find out if anyone knows anything about this program.

Bringing this back to life...I wanna know more about this program too - especially from first-hand experience. Any Fairfax Surgery Residents on here??

They are new (starting this year). I know that they are a community program, they were affiliated with Georgetown and George Washington Univ.

Well now they're officially a campus of MCV.

Has anyone rotated there, if so can you tell me a little about it..the program etc. What is the PD and faculty like and will the residents that are there now continue to fill the upper level slots until their first class has advanced.

I know a good number of 4th years who have done their Senior Surgery at Fairfax, and I've heard mixed reviews really. Some literally RAVE about it, saying the exposure you get is very wide/varied and excellent. Others have told me the program is still very new, not very organized, the codes aren't run too well, and that the program has many kinks that have yet to be worked out. So I'm not sure what to believe really.

I also have heard that their first class didn't do so well from a ranking/performance perspective. The explanation I got in-house (from docs @ Fairfax) is that essentially the only way to fill upper level positions (3rd, 4th year etc surgery residents) was to take students that had dropped out or not made it in other programs, so naturally the initial performance of the first class wasn't going to be the best. But they did insist that it's now a problem of the past, and they have excellent residents, and the faculty are VERY committed to teaching. So...

Anyone else care to chime in and clarify things (esp. any Fairfax residents!)? 🙂

 

[FDNewbie]

Oh yea...I wanted to add one more thing. Fairfax Trauma Surgeons don't cover exclusively trauma. They're actually moving to acute care rather than just critical care (Trauma). Ie, they're the team that responds to surgical emergencies for patients on the floor. That's not a trauma, but definitely an acute situation. They also do a fair amount of neurosurgery and ortho themselves - despite them having a 24/7 IN-HOUSE neuro and ortho staff. In addition, they perform several elective cases for the underprivaledged/underinsured patients (I think it's part of a grant the hospital got), so they do regular general surgical procedures like lap colis, thyroidectomies, etc etc. So you get a VERY wide spectrum of surgical experience at Fairfax, even as a Trauma attending at Fairfax.

 

[Asdf77]

Just wanted to say thanks for brining this link back to life. I'm really interested in this program, and need to be in the DC area due to my sig other's job, so any information on this or other DC programs is greatly appreciated.

 

[surgical06]

i rotated at fairfax, and visit from time to time SICU/trauma surgery, and i must say i see quite a few errors listed above about it. first, trauma team does do acute care, but they do not do ortho or neuro. they do take care of these patients, but not operate on them. the codes are never ever ever disorganized, their resuss rooms are huge and staff very well trained, can have folks in the OR in less than 15minutes.

the trauma attendings have several certifications, a couple do their own VATS and a couple of other things so they don't have to reffer that many patients.

there are two teams on call 24, trauma and a general surgery, both have attendings, both will can and do cover trauma and general. most often the general surgery team has to help the trauma team because codes come in constantly there.

VCU has a campus there and their medstudents rotate their. (about 30).

inova fairfax is a phenomenal place, one of the largest surgical volumes in the country, huge new, well funded place. i think the program is 3 or 4 years old. i didn't apply there cause i don't wanna be in VA, but its a great place, anyone that comes from there will be well trained.

only thing negative is their M&M is too friendly

 

[puraj83]

bump. any updates on this program? what are the graduates doing? quality of teaching?

thanks!

 

[tontondavid]

bump. any updates on this program? what are the graduates doing? quality of teaching?

thanks!

I'll update this in a few months, I'm starting there next week!!!

 

[joet516]

Bump again.

What do you think of it? I met one of their chief residents at the med student program during the American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress last weekend. He was representing them at the residency program directors reception and talked it up big time one on one to me and another student. He was obviously a HUGE fan of his program; I had to actually interrupt him so I catch my plane.

Just wanted to know what you're opinion was as a new intern. Is it really as good of a place as he made it out to be or was he talking it up since thats what he was there to do?

 

[Pilot Doc]

Is it really as good of a place as he made it out to be or was he talking it up since thats what he was there to do?

There are a number of possibilities

1) he really thinks it's great and it is, in fact, great
2) he really think it's great, but he's wrong
3) he's deliberately misrepresenting the program

Not really any way to discern which is which, but that's no different than any other program.

 

[Syranope2]

i'm a current resident at fairfax. i'd be happy to answer any questions via pm that i can.

 

[mcvcutter]

Their faculty has been in a huge state of flux and as a rotating student through there it was awful. After I finished rotating through the dept chair left (2 changes in a year or something ridiculous) and my classmates told me the department felt like it was falling apart with a handful of abusive attendings and residents. I can only compare the Inova surgery department to VCU's and VCU is wayyyyy nicer. I plan on going into Ortho so it is not an issue for me but I just wanted to give people a heads up that WHC might be better to look at if you want to be in the area.

 

[Syranope2]

Their faculty has been in a huge state of flux and as a rotating student through there it was awful.

Yipes!

I'm a current resident at Fairfax and I wanted to get a word in.

There have been several changes in the program recently, and the great majority of them have been good.

1. The department chair, who began to phase himself out about three years ago, officially left last year and the replacement that was hired didn't do very well. He left about 8 months ago after less than a year with the program.

HOWEVER, one of the long-standing gen surg attendings at Fairfax has stepped in as the interim chair and will potentially be the offiicial chair. He's a great guy, well-liked, and has some good ideas for the program and the department. All of us residents are extremely happy with the change.

2. The long-standing program director has decided to step down from his PD-ship (he is going to be heading the GME dept for the hospital) and his replacement will be starting soon. Nothing fishy there, old PD not fired from the program. He's just slowing down his clinical work as he gets a little older (sorry, sir). His replacement has been at IFH for about a year now, he's very well liked, and the residents are also really excited about the changes that he promises to bring. He has experience as assistant PD and interim PD at several other programs.

3. Several new hospital-employeed surgeons, including a few breast surgeons, two great new trauma surgeons, and a MIS surgeon, as well as a few new private practice surgeons (specifically, three new vascular surgeons) have been added on to the teaching service recently. They've been welcomed with open arms and have been a great addition to the program.

4. The Kaiser general surgeons that once operated a ton at IFH have now moved most of their cases to another local hospital. The exception is that their hepatobiliary and pancreatic procedures (liver resections, Whipples) are still being done at IFH. Because of the increase in volume from the other surgical groups, this loss has not detrimentally impacted the case numbers of the residents.

I'm sorry that this student didn't have a good experience at Fairfax, but I think I speak for most of the residents when I say that we work at a busy, friendly, well-staffed hospital that provides great operative numbers, excellent teaching, and exposure to a variety of practice settings. I have excellent working relationships, as well as friendships, with most of my fellow residents. The attendings are almost entirely volunteer (that is, they choose to teach and they choose to work with us in the OR) and they are almost without exception a great group of people. There is very little malignancy in the program.

Our program is the newest in the country, as far as I know, as it started only 8 years ago, but we have gotten better and attracted more talented residents every year. Our last two classes of chiefs have matched at:

Endocrine: Mayo
Breast: USC
Critical Care: U of Hawaii
MIS: Mayo
MIS: Beth Israel
Plastics: UT Houston


Hope this info helps. The program isn't perfect, none are, but the above post made it sound like we are in disarray, and I don't think that's true at all.