Pitt resident (not IM) here, so while I clearly can't comment on the other programs, I can address a few things about Pitt.
First about the "turfing" surgical patients to medical services. That can and does happen, often for good reasons (e.g. you really don't want the orthopedist managing complex medical issues). The good news is that these patients get turfed to attending run services, not the teaching services. The volume is high enough that there is more then enough pure medicine patients for the residents, and the overflow, like surgical cases, goes to the attending service. I have even heard of cases where if the patients are interesting and medically complex they will transfer from the A-service to the teaching service for higher level care.
Secondly about being "fellow run." I'm not exactly sure what that means. We certainly do have our share of fellows (as most big sub-specialty centers do), but the system is well run and fellows usually add to the education, not take away. For example, on my ICU block the fellow and I would split the unit in half and we'd each take half the patients. Sometimes we'd round with the attending, other times it would just be the two of us rounding and he would run plans by the attending later. Most fellows did a lot of teaching and I learned a ton from them. If my patient needed a procedure, I did it, no question. If his patient needed a procedure, sometimes I would still do it with him supervising, as they had all met their numbers early on and were happy to teach.
I can't tell you too much about cards unfortunately. I know we have very high clinical volumes, but don't have the familiarity with the department to say how academically strong they are
