Peninsula Hospital, Far Rockaway, NY

[LovelyRita]

Talk to me. PM's happily accepted.

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[Sanchik]

stay away unless absolutelly desperate. did a 6 week fp rotation there. unless u need the info urgently, i'll PM after the weekend b/c i have 2 shelfs on mon. but if u need it urgently, pm me. s

 

[OnMyWayThere]

Can you post here if it's not too dirty for a public forum? Thanks

 

[Plinko]

Talk to me. PM's happily accepted.

I saw your post on the Surgery forum saying you forewent the AOA match and tried to match ACGME Surgery but came up short. I can only assume you are considering taking up Penninsula on an offer for a Surgery linked spot. I went up to Far Rockaway this fall to do a Surgery Sub-I there. I can tell you, without reservation, that it is the worst hospital I have ever seen. Example: my first patient was elderly and had a pressure ulcer on her ear that I was the first to discover because the nurses had not moved her in several days. It is so bad that after two days in surgery I quit and changed my rotation to another specialty that would allow me more time to go on interviews. The first day I was there ALL the surgery residents I spoke with told me not to waste my time there and to do something else. Many told me they were trying to transfer out fo the program altogether. In my limited opinion, it might be the worst AOA surgery program in the US. In addition to that, the vast majority of med students there are from Ross in the Dominican Republic and St. Georges in Grenada. They use them for nurse like duties: drawing blood, transporting patients, etc. The whole scenario there is sleezy. I felt like I needed a shower ever time I left the hospital. I actually told them during the course of of the interview, even after I walked off their service, that I would not be ranking them. They still called me two months later telling me they intended on ranking me highly. There is obiviously good reason why they still have openings.

I went to medical school specifically to be a surgeon. If I did not match surgery and had to choose between using my DO to get a job with a medical supply company or something of the like or scrambling into Peninsula to be a surgeon, I would choose taking the medical supply job. It is that bad.

 

[OnMyWayThere]

In my limited opinion, it might be the worst AOA surgery program in the US. In addition to that, the vast majority of med students there are from Ross in the Dominican Republic and St. Georges in Grenada.

Are allopathic students allowed to rotate or do their post-grad there though if they're an AOA program?

 

[LovelyRita]

I went up to Far Rockaway this fall to do a Surgery Sub-I there. I can tell you, without reservation, that it is the worst hospital I have ever seen.

Thank you. I thought I had heard about some issues with the place, but couldn't remember if it was that place or not.

Too bad for them.

 

[Plinko]

Are allopathic students allowed to rotate or do their post-grad there though if they're an AOA program?

They (the St. Georges and Ross students) just do rotations there. If you can even call them rotations. They really treat them like junk. They were treated more like techs, lvns, etc. They have so few places to go for third year core rotations that they have to put up with it. Allopathic and Osteopathic students will often rotate through the same hospitals, but your are right: only DO students are able to to AOA residencies.

 

[OnMyWayThere]

Thank you. I thought I had heard about some issues with the place, but couldn't remember if it was that place or not.

Too bad for them.

I have also heard people in the past share the same experience

 

[Sanchik]

Plinko's experiences sums it up exactly! although i was in the fp clinic, i hung out with and went to lectures with the other residents. i would rather not do residency at all then go there. honestly.

 

[Molly Maquire]

Be aware that the Ortho Surgery residency there is a pyramid system. They accept a lot of rotating interns, then only a few of them making it into the ortho program. Once in the program, I think they do all thier rotations at outside hospitals. In fact, I think most of the rotating intens are trying to get into the ortho program. If you want ortho, I guess you do what you have to do.

 

[beastmaster]

Just curious, how does peninsula compare to coney island hospital

 

[Khirurg]

Peninsula hospital is MUCH worse. Coney is just a city hospital, with mentality of the city employees. But it is a hospital. My friend who is a resident in Peninsula told me that last week they didn't have reagents for simple Bilirubin eval, or Troponins.

 

[Dr. MAXY]

From what I have heard from others, you definately want to stay away from that hell hole.

 

[Khirurg]

..unless you are thinking of doing ortho. It is pretty decent program. otherwise stay the f.... away

 

[bigtimesmally]

Their surgical residents rotate through sloan kettering and they have a new PD who has changed the program alot. Are you guys sure the program is not good anymore?

 

[LovelyRita]

Their surgical residents rotate through sloan kettering and they have a new PD who has changed the program alot. Are you guys sure the program is not good anymore?

I think I heard about the new PD. Sounds like a positive thing. That's why I think it's good to get the word out, because the last thing we need is another scary osteopathic surgery residency. I personally am looking for a strong program in which the residents become more confident as the years go on and they get exposed to enough/ a variety of cases.

The fact that they rotate through Sloan Kettering is intriguing, yet it doesn't stand alone. How are they treated when they go there? Sometimes residents from community DO programs go to larger institutions and really have to take a stand that they need to be treated equally. I hope this is the case.

Every place has good aspects and bad aspects, and it makes me sad when I hear such god-awful things about a place...it makes me hope that they are going to turn it around, so as to maintain good residency positions. It sounds like Peninsula is trying to do that. I hope this is true.

 

[bigtimesmally]

Well, from what I've heard from the surgical residents themselves, that the program has vastly improved and they are getting some good fellowships. Supposedly, one of their graduates got a fellowship in minimal invasive at UC DAVIS. Also, they do their rotations mainly at other hospitals, not, at peninsula itself as residents. I really think some of the negative stuff I've heard is from the past years as the residents seem to convey the same info.

Best thing to do is to visit the place yourself. That's it.

 

[NYCDawg81]

.

 

[Plinko]

Well, from what I've heard from the surgical residents themselves, that the program has vastly improved and they are getting some good fellowships. Supposedly, one of their graduates got a fellowship in minimal invasive at UC DAVIS. Also, they do their rotations mainly at other hospitals, not, at peninsula itself as residents. I really think some of the negative stuff I've heard is from the past years as the residents seem to convey the same info.

Best thing to do is to visit the place yourself. That's it.

If interested in Surgery at Peninsula, I agree you should visit it yourself. But I would do it as a day long visit before you sign on for a whole month's rotation because it might just be the longest month of your life. Again, Ross med students rotate there on their third year cores, and to me that is very telling. Because of their school's reputation (for profit, in the Dominican Republic, terribly low board pass rates: aka sketchy) they have a list of rotation sites about as long as my pinky finger, and so they end up there.

I do have to reiterate that when I was there six months ago the residents said it was not a good program and many of them were trying to transfer elsewhere. Quick correction to the above post: the PD did a minimally invasive fellowship at Yale, not a residency. That is a big difference. I could be wrong but I doubt Yale Surgery has graduated a DO. From what I saw it is true that he is a pretty proactive guy and is trying outsource the residency out of Peninsula to other med centers as much as possible. Peninsula itself only has four ORs and they look like they are straight out of the TV show MASH. They don't even have complimentary scrubs in the closet they call a locker room, which I'm guessing is an OSHA violation. The moving of the residency to other places is pretty much out of necessity. If you end up there as a surgery intern in the near future my guess would be that the actually residency would probably be labeled under another hospital name by the time you graduate. It is true that the residents rotate at Sloan Kettering, but don't put much emphasis on that. They do a required month of Oncology Surgery there in the latter years of their residency. Maybe two or three if they so choose. PCOM Gen Surg and number of other DO Gen Surg programs on the East Coast also have this agreement with Sloan Kettering. It is not exactly a feather in Peninsula's cap.

 

[indymed]

So considering that the residents spend alot of time rotating and that the program is supposedly being improved, what is the consensus? Can one become a good gen surgeon at this program? What is the case load like? Do you get to do everything? They rotate in NYC, that has to be a good thing right?

 

[San_Juan_Sun]

So considering that the residents spend alot of time rotating and that the program is supposedly being improved, what is the consensus? Can one become a good gen surgeon at this program? What is the case load like? Do you get to do everything? They rotate in NYC, that has to be a good thing right?

Sounds like you're trying to talk yourself into Penninsula. That's a bad sign, IMHO. You should only be willing to go to a program that you absolutely believe is solid, anything less is a huge red flag. As far as rotating goes, the very fact that you have to rotate a lot elsewhere is a bad sign. If a program has to depend on outside programs to give you the bulk of your education, that tells you all you need to know.

As an aside, it is very popular amongst DO applicants to brag about which programs allow you to rotate where. Aside from the obvious question ("Why does my program have to send me out all the time?") you need to understand that as an outside rotator at another program, you start from the bottom of the totem pole. It's very easy to become the floor monkey while that programs resident's get to do the fun stuff. It's probably not always like that, but you need to know this if you're considering a program that depends on other institution's to provide a large chunk of your training.

Bottom line: be a skeptic when it comes to less-than-competitive residencies, especially DO surgery ones. They are less-than-competitive for a reason.

 

[indymed]

I think you are right. I have been trying to talk myself into programs. But I really want to match General surgery. It is important that a program have the resources there for me to utilize and become the surgeo I want to be. I can deal with crappy hospitals, constant rotating outside of the base hospital as long as I come out of the program trained well.

How do I know I will be trained? How do I evaluate the faculty and the residents when I goto the hospital? Is there a way to quantify a good program: like, does bed size, trauma level, case load indicate better training conditions? What should I look for to ensure that it is a program that will ensure I come out trained?

 

[Larry Renal]

Just another quick point about rotating as a resident at affiliated hospitals...depending on the situation, you never quite feel like you belong there. You're obviously the "new guy" and may be treated as such when it comes to procedures, etc. I don't have firsthand experience, but have friends who are going through the process.

 

[rimon7381]

If interested in Surgery at Peninsula, I agree you should visit it yourself. But I would do it as a day long visit before you sign on for a whole month's rotation because it might just be the longest month of your life. Again, Ross med students rotate there on their third year cores, and to me that is very telling. Because of their school's reputation (for profit, in the Dominican Republic, terribly low board pass rates: aka sketchy) they have a list of rotation sites about as long as my pinky finger, and so they end up there.

Plinko, ROSS UNIVERSITY is not in Dominican Republic. It's on an island called DOMINICA in the caribbean. True, it's a for profit school but it's NOT true that their pass rate is terribly low...on the contrary, it's quite high maybe a little less than a US MD school on avg. The other incorrect thing is that they DON'T have a list of rotation sites as long as your pinky finger. The list maybe the size of your entire arm. Don't put false information w/o knowing the facts. Maybe a few students from Ross go there to do rotations for variety of reasons not the entire school and in no way you can tell a school's reputation just by looking at one site....maybe the bottom 5% of the class go there who knows. And the reputation of the school is pretty good as well. It's one of the best 4 caribbean schools out there.

Just for your information: the best 4 caribbean schools are well regarded throughout the US, sure not as much as the US MD schools. But for a foreign school they are doing pretty well. The best 4 caribbean schools are:

St. George's University
Ross University
SABA University
American University of Caribbean

And all of these schools have a hospital list for clinical rotations bigger than your pinky finger

here's Ross's clinical sites

http://www.rossu.edu/med/academics/hospitalaffil_051.cfm

http://www.rossu.edu/med/whyross/recordachieve_041.cfm

I am not trying to fight with you. Just pointing out your mistakes.

Peace!

 

[DrWBD]

Just want to point out that it seems every marginal residency program in NY "rotates through Sloan-Kettering" nowadays and uses that as a selling point to promote their residency. It's almost become cliche. The fact that you even need an outside rotation basically means your program is deficient in a particular area. With MSKCC it's understandable - they see a lot of and more difficult Surgical Oncology cases than most other places in NYC. But multiple outside rotations should be a warning flag, IMHO.