Wow! Alot of rumors are flying. Dr. G did not want to leave Lincoln. Lincoln does not have a pediatric fellowship, and the associate director is a North shore.
The program is not in danger of closing.
Dr. Lurin, is not a Dr. G, but he is doing his best to make sure that we as resident are educated and ready to become attending.
Thanks for pointing out the above. It is amazing how rumors fly in a RRC year.
Gernsheimer was PD for over 30 years and during that time saw many changes to the hospital. Like any county facility, politics are rampant and some in the administration took issue with Gernsheimer. Gernsheimer was not a fighter (contrary to the above comment about him not being a yes man). In fact he is know by most to be the nicest guy in Emergency Medicine. The first thing he told me when I started was "It is nice to be important but it is important to be nice". That summed him up. He wouldn't fight the administration. He wasn't particularly adept at politics. The previous chair who had protected him had resigned and been replaced by a weaker dept chair. Therefore he was a easy target to the vicious administration that this kind of place breeds. The dumbest thing they could ever do was asking him to step down but in my opinion this hospital's administration and HHC in general is not the epitome of enlightened thinking. He did not leave by choice. He was forced to leave.
The new PD is a nice enough guy but nobody is going to replace Gernsheimer in my book. He is also fairly politically savvy so he probably will fair better. He has some good plans and insight and is trying hard to make improvements where they can be made. There is talk of possibly switching to a 1-4 and changes being made to the rotations but nothing will be worked on till after the RRC.
Many of the people who left were already considering it but stayed for Gernsheimer. Lincoln is a hard place to work for both resident and attending. Much like there being a change in residents every three years there is a rolling attendence of different attendings. There are a few die hards that are either insane or incredibly dedicated to the South Bronx (my vote is for the former). There is a never ending line of trauma, sick patients and crap that you are continually wading in. You have more staff now than previously but most of your nurses are young and inexperienced and the ones with experience are battle hardened and likely to chew your head off if you approach them wrong till you have earned their respect. You have to deal with resus after resus while trying to juggle this chart rack that never empties. People have always came and gone from Lincoln and now is no change. There are some new faces and some old. Some of the people that left have told me they miss the place, they miss the accuity and some are starting to moonlight a shift here and there to get back in the action, so who knows what the future is. The only thing that is a guarentee is that there will continue to be a ton of sick patients in the south bronx.
As to the RRC, the PIF is completed and we are reviewed on the 29th of this month so we shall see. I fail to see in glaring problems with it. Working too hard (in the name of education and without violating the Bell comission or working for service over education) and seeing too much is not a RRC violation as far as I know.
Finally as the above person stated, the previous PD and a good friend left to go to North Shore in hope of starting a sports medicine fellowship. The previous research director went to NY Hosp Queens and the only Ped EM attending to leave was most definately not the Ped EM fellowship director (as we have none).
I hope this answers some questions for the applicants and stops some of the rumor mill for everybody else.
