Hi there;
Here's what I know in terms of those three programs.
1. Georgetown: PROS-University program with reasonable(?) reputation. So it might help you get a fellowship afterward. Fairfax hospital is a very large medical center w/ great ancillary services. Arlington Hospital appears to be well run and have great teaching. Georgetown Hosp. recently partnered w/ WHC so is now more financially stable. Specialists starting to return to G-town because of this.
CONS- Poor financial health, had recently lost alot of attendings because of this. Not sure about quality of new attendings that replaced them. Ambulatory care clinic has substandard facilities (at least it was last year in interviews). Ambulatory clinic attngs cranky (small sample size here). Limited patient population at g-town hosp. Fairfax Hosp gives you very little autonomy since you are dealing with private attndgs. DC VA is really really bad. Finally, there's gonna be alot of travelling involved. Essentialy you will work from deep in NoVA (fairfax) to almost suburban MD (DC VA). DC traffic is awful, esp at the times you are likely to travel in and out of the hospitals.
2. WHC- PROS -Located in one place your whole residency. Strong in patient experience with reasonable autonomy for both interns and residents. Truly 'Closed' ICU/CCU with good intensivists. Humane call schedule (it's a community program). Has fellowship programs so subspecialty rotations are decent (Cardiology rotations are esp. strong. Interactions with med students from GW/Howard. Great morning report run by the program director (who usually shows up for these). Good resident relationships. Program director willing to work with residents to acheive their carreer goals.
CONS- It is a community program and has a history of residents having a hard time getting into competitive fellowships. Not alot of reasearch opportunities. Poor out patient clinic; not alot of teaching (although I its gotten better with new attendings). predominantaly inner city population.
3. GW- don't know a whole lot about this program. In fact I didn't even consider it. From the people I spoke with who either interviewed or attended this program. I heard statements like "glorified community program" and abusive to residents. Looking at it on paper, it seems like it has a stronger outpatient emphasis than the other two programs (I believe this program is the only one in DC to offer the generalist track). In patient is somewhere between the two. It's University hospital was in trouble when I was on the trail.
Bottom line- My personal feeling is that if you want reputation then go to Georgetown. If you want a good hospitalist background and a more humane residency go to WHC. There's a good review of WHC on the scutwork site. Plus, I would encourage you to do second visits to all these programs if you are truly interested. You get to see how everyone (staff/attngs/residents) interact, and believe me the residents won't sugarcoat anything when you talk to them (unlike during the interview lunch).
Good Luck!
