Forum Members PMSR/RRA Residency Reviews

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HalluxSlicer said:
Any reviews on Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY?
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It’s where I graduated residency from and now I’m comfortable in everything from charcot recon, total ankles, all the way to flatfoot recons
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Does anybody have any reviews or insight on United Health Services Hospitals in Johnson City, NY or Our Lady of Lourdes in Binghamton, NY?
 
Footies167 said:
Does anybody have any reviews or insight on United Health Services Hospitals in Johnson City, NY or Our Lady of Lourdes in Binghamton, NY?
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Ive heard really bad things about united health services. High resident turnover, bad environment etc. You can PM me if you want.

Lady of lourdes i think is ok. They scramble pretty consistently every year. Know a few people who are there currently. mediocre training
 
Henry Ford Wyandotte Hospital director is Paolo Di Liddo . Any feedback or info on the program greatly appreciated.
 
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GreenHousePub said:
Big names, mediocre training. UCLA used to be a VA program but just changed its name.
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They use the UCLA name to attract residents but their time is split between VA-West LA and UCLA Olive View hospital. UCLA Olive View is really in Sylmar, so in LA County but not really LA. Their 3rd years are still working like dogs taking call and running heavy clinic. They barely make their numbers. There are better So Cal programs such as Fountain Valley, VA Loma Linda, or Chino Valley.
 
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blessed.pod said:
They use the UCLA name to attract residents but their time is split between VA-West LA and UCLA Olive View hospital. UCLA Olive View is really in Sylmar, so in LA County but not really LA. Their 3rd years are still working like dogs taking call and running heavy clinic. They barely make their numbers. There are better So Cal programs such as Fountain Valley, VA Loma Linda, or Chino Valley.
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You're essentially a UCLA resident with full benefits, resident union, and high salary, which is honestly impressive. Just like @blessed.pod said, it is VA program at best. 3rd years do scrub in with local Kaiser to see pathologies thats outside of what they see on the daily; diabetic foot exams, DFU, and puss bus. The UCLA name is the only good thing about there IMO
 
Does anyone know if Grant Medical Center in Columbus, OH will be brining their program back? Heard rumors of potential switch to other hospital in the health system or potential new health system all together. Any info is appreciated, thanks.
 
Footies167 said:
Does anybody have any reviews or insight on United Health Services Hospitals in Johnson City, NY or Our Lady of Lourdes in Binghamton, NY?
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I’m a current resident at UHS (AKA United Health Services, Inc. in Johnson City, NY in case someone tries to find this with a keyword search) and will try to be as unbiased as possible; overall I’m happy I’m here.

Pros:
-Numbers are solid; we are level 2 trauma and do get a decent amount of foot trauma. We also get really good pediatrics numbers which is unusual for most podiatry residencies. I see multiple pediatric patients in my resident clinic every week.

-Solid attendings that are very skilled in the OR have great patient outcomes; new attending under contract to start in June who is finishing a rearfoot/ankle fellowship with the hopes of being our ankle-dedicated attending (currently have one other but they spend more time at Lourdes)

-Really solid resident-run clinic once a week (half day) that books out months in advance, very busy with really good variety (trauma, peds, orthotics, wounds, rarely nails—we have one clinic day per month set aside for nails but it’s usually filled with non-nail patients due to demand in medically underserved area). The clinic is also in a really new outpatient building that is aesthetically pleasing and very well-equipped and staffed by nurses and MAs who are exclusively with podiatry)

-Wound care center dominated by podiatry with ample opportunities to be very hands on

-Epic is our EMR, which takes a lot of headache out of residency IMO versus other EMR systems I saw as a student

-Really strong off service rotations with attendings that respect us and give us hands on experience

-Director gives you flexibility to focus on your biggest interests and strong opportunities/good connections for elective rotations

-Disproportionate number of recent graduates have placed in fellowship and hospital positions

-Good benefits including salary starting over $60k (outdated on CASPR), very cheap (like $600 per month all utilities including internet) on campus housing available (1 to 3 bedrooms), inexpensive good health care coverage (especially if you get your care at UHS), cheap dental/vision plans, Hospital is also nonprofit so you can get credit toward PSLF while here

-Low cost of living, little to no traffic, people who are from this area are friendly (feels more like Midwest), all of our clinic/hospital locations are within 10 to 15 mins driving time

-1 hour from Elmira, Ithaca, Syracuse, Scranton; 3-4 hours drive from NYC; pretty surrounding area in the fingerlakes



Cons:

-While ankle numbers are there, we primarily get them with ortho like many NY programs and it’s more in an observational role unfortunately. This should hopefully be changing with our incoming fellowship trained DPM (NY requires special certification for RRA); big recon cases are uncommon

-History of toxic social environment that has improved with residents graduating thankfully (current group gets along far better; the challenge is we scramble a lot which has led to limited ability to balance personalities coming in, etc)

-We do unfortunately double scrub nearly all cases, though would get our numbers fine even if we didn’t—just sort of the director’s philosophy on that

-Right now only 6 of 9 spots are filled, so hours on service can be long (though can be a benefit in terms of surgical experience, and still wouldn’t call it a program where you’re working an inordinate number of hours; maybe 60-70 when on service and off service is closer to 40)

-Binghamton/Johnson City themselves are kind of run down/do not have a ton going on if you’re looking for a big city vibe (suburbs are pretty though)

-On campus housing, while a great deal, is in a crummy area/older (though there’s a significant number of families with kids living there from the various residencies and spaces for kids to play with lots of toys, etc, so if you have a family the on campus housing actually is family-friendly)

-Few direct flights to local airport, but 1 hour from Syracuse which has lots of direct flights


I’ll update if I can think of more. Feel free to ask me anything. Obviously biased because I’m here, but am trying to be as impartial as I can.
 
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Carpe Phalanges said:
...Wound care center dominated by podiatry with ample opportunities ...
...we scramble a lot ...
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Michael Richards Yes GIF
 
Feli said:
Michael Richards Yes GIF
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It’s not a program where you’re in the wound care center every day. We have solid wound care opportunities if you’re into that, but that’s mostly during your office/wound care rotation unless you want to go more often. When I said run mostly by podiatry, I meant our attendings see the majority of the patients there (two of them each have a couple days they spend there and the rest of our attendings are just in their hospital based or private clinics).

And honestly I think the scrambling is more secondary to us being in NY state and in a sort of random small city area. We don’t even really ever get students. Not many people aware of us. I believe HealthAlliance is another NY program as an example that has had similar issues in that respect. Lourdes does a little bit better because of Dr. LaPorta’s name recognition, though they still don’t get many students or residency applicants (he is also like 80 or something and probably won’t be there a ton longer).
 
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Carpe Phalanges said:
It’s not a program where you’re in the wound care center every day. We have solid wound care opportunities if you’re into that, but that’s mostly during your office/wound care rotation unless you want to go more often. When I said run mostly by podiatry, I meant our attendings see the majority of the patients there (two of them each have a couple days they spend there and the rest of our attendings are just in their hospital based or private clinics).

And honestly I think the scrambling is more secondary to us being in NY state and in a sort of random small city area. We don’t even really ever get students. Not many people aware of us. I believe HealthAlliance is another NY program as an example that has had similar issues in that respect. Lourdes does a little bit better because of Dr. LaPorta’s name recognition, though they still don’t get many students or residency applicants (he is also like 80 or something and probably won’t be there a ton longer).
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Are your attendings visiting any podiatry schools besides NY to pitch their school? DMU used to have residency programs come out, bring pizza, and give a presentation about their residency over lunch. I'm not sure how high yield it is, but if you are looking for visitors it might be a way to get your name out.

Lots of programs have their problems ie. attendings that won't pass the blade, getting hospital consults for nails (ugh), but I can't help but sense an undercurrent of - too much work, not enough RRA and probably not enough surgery if double scrubbing. A program with 1 part-time RRA doctor shouldn't be approved for 3 residents a year.

On a plural number of occasions I spoke to a PD at a program somewhere, or to my own PD and they always said some variation of "CPME came out and told us we could definitely have more residents, in fact, many more". I never went to a single program where I thought "yes, this program should have 3 more residents". Any program that was good was good because they kept the resident volume low in relation to the case volume. Most of the programs that were bad literally could have dropped 2 residents a year and they'd still have been questionable.
 
heybrother said:
Are your attendings visiting any podiatry schools besides NY to pitch their school? DMU used to have residency programs come out, bring pizza, and give a presentation about their residency over lunch. I'm not sure how high yield it is, but if you are looking for visitors it might be a way to get your name out.

Lots of programs have their problems ie. attendings that won't pass the blade, getting hospital consults for nails (ugh), but I can't help but sense an undercurrent of - too much work, not enough RRA and probably not enough surgery if double scrubbing. A program with 1 part-time RRA doctor shouldn't be approved for 3 residents a year.

On a plural number of occasions I spoke to a PD at a program somewhere, or to my own PD and they always said some variation of "CPME came out and told us we could definitely have more residents, in fact, many more". I never went to a single program where I thought "yes, this program should have 3 more residents". Any program that was good was good because they kept the resident volume low in relation to the case volume. Most of the programs that were bad literally could have dropped 2 residents a year and they'd still have been questionable.
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I would agree that I honestly think 9 would probably be the absolute max we should have here. Right now I’d say we roughly double to triple our numbers double scrubbing, but I definitely would say ankles is our weak spot (get the numbers easily and only single scrub the ankles since it’s with ortho, but it’s not very hands on). Again, having a fellowship trained RRA attending coming in June should help. We do single scrub every ankle case with ortho (and there are no ortho residents), but it’s not super hands on. (And the Ortho PA is scrubbed in as well normally.) That said, I am told recent graduates have been plenty comfortable doing ankles after graduating.

But yeah I’d say your assessment is otherwise pretty accurate overall in terms of cons with the exception of surgery volume being probably a bit better than you’re getting the sense for.

And our program hasn’t done a good job at all with outreach… We send residents to a couple residency fairs but that’s about it. I guess funding for it dried up during COVID and we’ve been slow to get back into visiting programs, etc. Something we’re trying to improve.
 
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Anonymous submission
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Program Name: Hunt Regional Medical Center

Location: Greenville, Texas

General Program/Hospital Info: Hunt regional, various surgery centers around Dallas

Attendings: Dr. Paul Brancheau (Director), Dr. Huntsman, Dr. Duffin, Dr. Kane, Dr. Legel, multiple others

Residents: Take 2 a year. But heard they will begin taking 3 in the next applicant cycle

Didactics: Once a week. A variety including cadaver labs, journal clubs, and presentations. Educational and not super stressful like some other programs.

OR Experience: The OR experience is highly dependent on which attending the resident was scrubbing with. A handful of outside attendings were letting residents do skin-to-skin on practically everything. But a couple attendings would let residents just close. The main attendings would let residents do about 25-50% of the case, unless it was something more complicated. There was a great variety of cases which were mostly elective and trauma. One of the attendings is an ortho who does total ankles, charcot recons, and other complex procedures multiple times a week. As for trauma, it seems podiatry has established a name for itself at the hospital so they get all the ankle fractures, calcaneal fractures, lisfrancs etc. that come through. Unfortunately, the residents mostly just retracted in the trauma cases. The residents seem to hit their surgical numbers by the end of 1st year.

Clinic Experience: Wednesday’s they have a resident run clinic at the hospital where they see about 20-30 patients. It’s about 60% wounds/nails and 40% trauma/tendonitis/plantar fasciitis/ingrowns. They let the students do everything for the patient such as give injections, doing nail avulsions, and debriding wounds. The residents would also alternate going to the director’s clinic on Tuesday’s.

Lifestyle: The on-call resident had the longest hours as expected, but it mainly depended how large their list of patients was. They told me the list is usually around 6-8 people, but it sometimes hits double digits. None of the residents live in Greenville since you have to go to surgery centers in the Dallas area when not on-call. So everywhere was usually a 30-50 minute commute. Luckily the academics are after their resident clinic so you don’t have to drive an extra long commute to get to academics.

Pros: Good case volume and diversity. Some attendings let you do skin-to-skin. Resident clinic has a lot of autonomy. The residents are easy to get along with.

Cons: Some attendings only let residents close or do only a small part of the surgery. Maybe a little too much clinic

Overall Conclusion: When people talk about the best programs in Texas, JPS and Hunt are the 2 that come to mind. I think they both offer something a little different. JPS offers skin-to-skin on pretty much everything, but it’s all dirty cases and trauma. Hunt offers a lot more variety and elective cases, but there’s less hands-on experience depending on the attending. Overall, Hunt remains a solid program.
 
Program Name: DVA New Mexico

General Program/Hospital Info: 4/year, 2 get sent to kaiser in Sacramento. It is decided first year which two goes. You take one week of call as a student but the resident I was with told me he would only call if it’s something interesting. I didn’t come in that week at all.

Attendings: Dr. Mele, Allen, Marshall and Stachura. Mele is the nicest, kindest, and smartest person you’ll ever meet. Loves to teach, pimps A LOT but it’s not meant to be degrading and put you down but more so to see if you have the knowledge and understand what it is happening. Even if you get it wrong, she will explain and is very cordial about it. Again, the nicest person you’ll meet. Allen can be critical, great doctor, her pts love her but she can be tough. Marshall, he’s hard to read, can be critical too. Stachura is really nice, younger and skilled. But overall, they want you to be a good doctor.

Residents: 4/year. When I was there all were very nice and had their own family etc. Pimps a lot but again, none of them were rude or nasty about it. Just wanted to see where your knowledge is.

Didactics: 3 times per week. Cases, radio rounds, journal and chapter review. Probably the best academics I’ve ever been in. Students are expected to read the radio, give dx, tx and everything in between. Attendings would give their input and opinion about cases so it was valuable.

OR Experience: Great all around. The attendings really trust their resident and give them a lot of autonomy.

Clinic Experience: Daily clinic and sometimes 120+pt a day between 4 main attendings and 5+ residents. But you don’t see or do nails. Nails are seen by techs. The clinic is well run and the residents do everything unless they have issue. One day per week is dedicated to chief clinic where u book your own cases and do the surgery, it’s pretty nice experience.

Research Opportunities: There if you want it.

Lifestyle: call is a week at a time but its manageable.

Pros: Lots of surgery at the VA itself and lots of surgery with outside attending literally doing everything below the knee. VA NM gets everything below the knee in terms of trauma so it’s all yours. They will give you a mock-interview which was very helpful because the actual interview is similar in format. The VA staff in general including OR staff loves pod because the whole department is cordial / kind to everyone and you will see that the staff goes out of their way to help pod’s life a little easier cause VA system can suck. Residents met their numbers after 1.5 years according to the PD during interviews.

Cons: I didn’t like ABQ. Nice, but I didn’t love it. Some attendings are a little more critical than other but they just want you to be a good doctor but it’s still tough sometimes. I wouldn’t put it as toxic though.

Overall Conclusion: Phenomenal program, the PD is a great person and skilled surgeon. They do everything they can to get you to see the pathology, diversity and academics so that you can pass your boards. If it wasn’t so far from my family, I’d rank them 1. Without a doubt you’ll come out of here skilled and ready to take on anything. What they’re doing is working cause their residents are all able to be qualified right away.
 
Program Name: LECOM Millcreek

General Program/Hospital Info: 3 per year, you rotate at millcreek hospital, and hamot with UPMC and a couple of ASC around the area. They’re getting a whole new ASC right across millcreek that is really nice.

Attendings: Core attendings such as Colonna and Hankins who are co-PD, Heard and a bunch of other outside attendings. The core attendings are over all skilled, kind, looks out for resident and students.

Residents: 3 per year. All are kind and do their best to give you a good month.

Didactics: it’s there but it’s very lack-luster

OR Experience: The core attendings are great, and they will let resident do stuff. No complaints. The outside attendings can be a hit or miss. Some are good, some not so much.

Clinic Experience: Clinic in different area such as the lecom clinic, and some in corey and other rural area. You do go to nursing home to clip nails like once a month I think.

Research Opportunities: There if you want it.

Lifestyle: You do your work and you go home if you’re not on-call. It’s not bad.

Pros: The core attendings are really nice and they want you to succeed. Free meals x 3 and subsidize housing. Free housing / meals for students for the month. Some attendings will let you do sutures, osteotomy etc and be involve in the case.

Cons: Erie is small and rural. The outside attendings can be a hit or miss. U don’t really get trauma there. Lots of wound, elective recons and no TAR.

Overall Conclusion: Now that one of the toxic attending is no longer there, I think it’s going to be a good program. You’ll get all your bread and butter and last I heard ortho residency is shutting down so things may change in pod’s favor.
 
Program Name: UH- Newark NJ

General Program/Hospital Info: 4/year. Main hospital is UH which is a level 1 trauma. U go to other outside hospital such as Hackensack, holy name, VA etc for outside cases. U take call at UH and Hackensack.

Attendings: Core attendings are Dr. Cook, Mvuemba, Bernatsky and Stuto. All are great and most will hand the blade if you prove to them you are competent. Cook can be critical but he expects good work and will tell you if you’re under performing. But I think it’s that mentality and attitude that allows them to keep their position in the hospital because they take foot and ankle trauma call every other day switching between them and ortho.

Residents: 4 per year. They were all nice and try their best to give u a good month.

Didactics: radio round, journal club, chapter review etc. not bad.

OR Experience: Lots of trauma. Every other day you will see something…ankle fx, lisfran, crush anything that will come through you will get and see cause they take trauma every other day and it’s a level 1 center.

Clinic Experience: clinic is every day at 12:30 PM till the last pt. Most of the attendings are pretty good about getting out on time. Some take way too long and you’re seeing patient from 12:30 to like 6pm sometimes.

Research Opportunities: there if you want it.

Lifestyle: They’re busy. But it’s manageable.

Pros: Heavy trauma. Cause you take trauma call every other day.

Cons: Recon and electives are rather low, no TAR. They depend on those numbers from outside attendings. Clinic can be awfully long depending on the attending. But most are pretty efficient. Newark is rough. Pilon and or poly-trauma automatically goes to ortho, pod don’t get them.

Overall Conclusion:

Great program with heavy trauma and wounds.
 
Program Name: Kent Hospital - RI

General Program/Hospital Info: Smaller hospital in Kent, RI. They take 2 a year, you take call in 1 hospital and you work at ASC around the area of RI and MA. You don’t take call as a student.

Attendings: Glod, Van Dine, Mallette, Meehan Manning are core attendings and lots of outside private attending.

Residents: 2 / year. Skilled residents cause they literally get the blade day 1 of residency so they’re all pretty competent. Some a little more arrogant than others but they definitely work hard.

Didactics: It’s not the focus of the program. There if u want it.

OR Experience: The residents get the blade day 1 and it shows. They’re all skilled.

Clinic Experience: Mainly in third year but not the first two.

Research Opportunities: not emphasis but there if u want it.

Lifestyle: do whatever you want if the work is done

Pros: Good program with skilled attendings who are willing to pass the blade so the residents really get that hands on experience. They do TAR there.

Cons: Some of the attendings and residents can come off as cold and hyper-critical. Most of the time it feels like they’re just rushing. Not inviting feeling. Interview at CRIP is meant to scare you by giving you things you’ve never seen before and stress you out, it feels toxic and hazing in nature.

Overall Conclusion: Great program. Without a doubt you’ll come out a skill surgeon, but you have to really fit in with them and their attitude. If you don’t it will be painfully obvious. Was really interested in them but felt like they already knew who they wanted and I was only there as a courtesy interview. Had them high in my list pre-interview and placed them in the bottom afterward.
 
Program Name: Geisinger – Scranton, PA

General Program/Hospital Info: 4 / year, all were pretty nice and most got along well with each other. They work out of the Geisinger Scranton hospital and a few of local ASC and other satellite hospital that are affiliated with Geisinger like Wilkes-Bare etc. Call is a week as a resident and student.

Attendings: Nasser, Branning, Micciche, Susek, Tolley and a few other core staff. All are nice, some are alittle more critical than others and one outside attending can be nasty. Will pass the blade if they feel you are competent.

Residents: 4 per year. All were nice.

Didactics: academics on Thursday. Nasser is very involved and will have hands on lab, cadaver, hardware and presentation etc. They try their best to give their residents and students that.

OR Experience: All the core attendings are skilled and you will see electives, wounds and big charcot recon cases.

Clinic Experience: They have a huge clinic in the mall. It feels weird but you get used to it.

Research Opportunities: U are required to do research and poster presentations.

Lifestyle: Not bad, you go home when the work is done but then you might have to work on your research etc.

Pros: Good attendings who wants you to do well, love to teach, big cases. If you’re a good student they will you do things i.e. toe amp etc.

Cons: The area is not nice. There’s no trauma and no TAR. Ortho gets trauma and you get whatever ortho doesn’t want.

Overall Conclusion: Good program. I just didn’t like the mandatory research, location and lack of trauma.
 
Program Name:

Christiana Care Health, Delaware

General Program/Hospital Info:

Two main hospitals, one in Wilmington one in Newark (15min from each other). Residents scrub cases at other hospitals and surgery center.

Attendings:

Dr. Dipretoro (PD), Dr. Bowers -who will be PD once Dipretoro steps down. Dr. Perscky, Dr. Severt, Dr. Klein. Dipretoro is very well trained, friendly, very good bedside manner. Bowers is young, works very fast, straightforward. Perscky you scrub cases with, works for ortho group and is their foot and ankle person. Very patient, kind, teaches well, very good surgeon. Severt is young, skilled surgeon, can come off cold but she’s actually pretty cool. All of them are very skilled in OR and clinic along with inpatient management. Some you will only see in OR and inpatient management. All treated residents and students well as long as they know you are competent and can trust you.


Residents:
Take 1 a year. All very smart

Didactics:
Not a strong emphasis


OR Experience:
Tons and tons of OR. In the OR very often due to attendings bringing different cases. Only 1 resident so residents were always 1st assist. Sometimes student was 1st assist because resident was already scrubbing multiple cases. Everything from toe amp to charcot. So many cases they don’t have enough residents to scrub.


Clinic Experience:

2 half days a week at Wilmington.

Research Opportunities:
There if you want it. Not a focus.


Lifestyle:
Very busy but manageable. When there is no clinic or cases going on, you are free to do whatever you want/need to do. Lots of inpatient rounding, lots of cases. Call seemed manageable despite 1 resident a year. Residents were well paid.


Pros:
-Tons of surgery, everything but TAR.

-Good attendings who teach well and bring lots of diverse cases



-You’re not gonna be reducing ankle in the ER etc but the attendings you work with will get the trauma that comes in for f/u in their clinic so by default you will get your trauma recon in that sense. The ortho PA will be doing the reduction and wrapping them up.


Cons:
- 1 resident per year. It’s a lot of work so I realized it wasn’t for me.


Overall Conclusion:



Great program for someone who is comfortable working alone. The upper residents are always a text or call away but you have to be self sufficient and comfortable cause if not, things can add up quickly. I believed they tried to request for two residents / year cause they definitely have enough for the numbers but was denied for unknown reasons to me.
 
Anonymous submission:

Program Name: West Penn Hospital

General Program/Hospital Info: West Penn hospital located on the east side of Pittsburgh, Pa. Residents and students split their time equally at 3 Allegheny Health Network hospitals: West Penn, Jefferson, and Forbes, with their home base being West Penn.

Attendings: 4 main attendings. Dr. Catanzariti(director) Dr. Saltrick, Dr. Hentges(externship director) and Dr. McMillen. One of the strongest aspects of this program. Each attending is not only extremely kind but a skilled knowledgeable surgeon and well known in the field.

Residents: some of the more skilled residents I encountered during externships. 3rd residents acted as attendings doing the more complicated cases and assisting second and first years with rounds etc. good group of people who all seemed to get along.

Didactics:2-3 times a week. Tuesday and Friday mornings. Most morning academics are virtual and very well done as outside attendings attend for CME. Monthly cadaver lab, there were a few the month I was there. And one Saturday morning a month they host a lecture series (Scott Alter) which is widely known.

OR Experience: Surgical volume was very high the month I rotated at this program. Each attending seemed to have a lot of cases going on for their OR days, and a good variety of pathology. Residents worked it out amongst themselves who would be doing what cases the night before(this typically was pretty easy as resident A just did flat foot and felt comfortable so he/she would give it to resident B etc.) The 3rd and 2nd years pretty much called dibs on ankle/rear foot cases or any other cases they seemed interested in and then the interns were typically left with a lot of dirty cases and fore foot cases to refine their hand skills. This isn’t set in stone as I saw interns do some mid foot etc and vice versa with some 3rd years doing some dirty cases but this is typically how it flows. Because this program does so much surgery everyone is getting their numbers and the misconception of double scrubbing here is not that great of a deal in my opinion. Often the senior resident is scrubbed in acting as the attending while the other attending has a second room or the second resident is still an integral part of the case.

Clinic Experience: since the OR schedule is pretty jam packed clinic experience is not as demanding. Most I saw a resident do was 2.5 days one week but usually it’s no more than 2 weeks as residents are primarily rounding and are in the OR. As you progress the less clinic you do and more OR you do, with 3rd years doing hardly any clinic

Research Opportunities: from what I saw/experienced not a huge focus but there if you want it. All attendings are well published.

Lifestyle: tough life style. This is a welcoming and friendly environment but they absolutely work their butts off. Residents start I would say at the latest 5:30 am and routinely weren’t done til after 6pm. Some days finished earlier but be prepared to start early and work!

Pros:
-Great attendings and residents, overall welcoming and friendly environment
-surgical load and diversity of surgical cases
-hands on program, attendings let you do the work!
-very demanding but if you commit they produce great surgeons
-no nail care(basically ran like F&A ortho clinic and OR)

Cons:
-early mornings, 3 hospitals are spaced out so driving and having a central location is difficult
-academic overload, this will make anyone better but sometimes it just felt like too much going on
-long days and hours

Overall Conclusion:
This program is definitely not for everyone but will set respective candidates up for success. After attending west Penn for the month I can definitely see what all the hype is about
 
Anonymous submission

Program Name: UPMC Mercy

General Program/Hospital Info: UPMC Mercy located in Pittsburgh, Pa. Residents split their time at UPMC Mercy hospital, Pittsburgh Veterans hospital, UPMC East, Washington health system and several other UPMC locations.

Attendings: 4 main attendings. Dr. Manway(director), Dr. Cain, Dr. Scanlan. Dr. Lowery, Dr Parker and several more. Residents work with a good amount of different attendings and with that comes some differing personalities. In my experience I enjoyed working with most attendings and can say that every attending was skilled and well versed in podiatry(you would be surprised at some programs this isn’t the case)

Residents: 5 residents a year. Residents seem like a family. Often getting together outside of work to hang out and grab a drink or play some basketball or pickleball or just hang out. Overall good group! Skills and knowledge vary but in general talented group that knows their stuff. Most 3rd years were doing very competitive fellowships or had solid job offers when I was there.

Didactics:2-3 times a week. Tuesday and Friday mornings. Most morning academics are virtual and very well done as outside attendings attend for CME. Monthly cadaver labs, med rep labs and dinners, weekly Wednesday morning academics when you are at the VA.

OR Experience: Surgical volume varies during my months. Some weeks/locations were very high volume and others I would say was average. Residents have no problem getting their numbers and they see any and all pathology in podiatry from TARs to hammertoes. I think Dr. Burns departure has definitely decreased numbers but the Washington Health system has become a larger part of the program in hopes to get numbers higher, which from my experience did as that group has a huge volume and diversity. They also added a podiatry surgery rotation for the residents where residents jsut do cases for the 1-2month period they are on that service. The resident can see the cases going the next day and pick which ones they want to scrub and attend. As for the specifics, the residents here do the entire case unless uncomfortable or if they something goes wrong. most rearfoot/recon cases go to the 2nd or 3rd years with interns doing a lot of intern type surgery (dirty cases,forefoot). This is not always the case though and is flexible. Some cases were double scrubbed but most of the double scrubbed cases were the senior resident acting as the attending teaching the junior resident. The volume is there where I didn’t see the double scrubbing as an issue.

Clinic Experience: Good mix of clinic and OR. I would say this program is pretty 50-50 with time spent in clinic vs the OR. Clinics are very busy and residents have a lot of freedom to see patients, come up with a plan and in most cases complete the plan/perform the treatment if necessary.

Research Opportunities: This program prides itself in their research and being well read. Most residents had 5+ papers published by time of graduation which I thought was impressive so definitely a pro for this program.

Lifestyle: lifestyle varies depending on the service you are on but overall demanding but doable. Most days 5-6 am with varying end time and academics and ancillary meetings in between. Manways service is typically the longest with days starting around 5am and typically ending around 7pm ish. All residents have a life outside of podiatry and on other services there is definitely more free time.

Pros:
-numerous skilled and well versed attendings
-resident family environment
-hands on program, residents do the cases
-surgical diversity, heavy recon but saw a variety of cases
-actively trying to continually improve their program addition of more OR opportunities

Cons:
-early mornings, locations are in variable locations makes commute difficult
-some attendings were a challenge to work with, not terrible but this aspect could be improved
-long days and hours

Overall Conclusion:
This program is definitely not for everyone but will set respective candidates up for succes and make great surgeons.
 
Anonymous Submission

Program Name: Mt. Auburn Hospital (Cambridge, MA)

General Program/Hospital Info: Small community hospital located in Cambridge just outside of Boston. Only surgical residents at the hospital are pod.

Attendings: 3 main attendings Dr. Emily Cook(director), Dr. Jeremy Cook, and Dr. Basile. Dr. Basile trained the Cooks at BI back in the day and then created this program 15ish years ago. Really enjoyed working with Dr J cook and Dr Basile. Dr Basile is very tough and demanding of his residents but is very talented surgeon in his own right. He has a short fuse but is a great doc. Dr. Emily Cook was one of the toughest Docs I worked with throughout this year. Granted she had a lot on her plate with all of the hats she wears but always seemed to be in a not great mood.

Residents: 2 per year. Very nice and welcoming group. Skills varied but overall wasn’t overly impressed with any of the residents. Senior residents often struggled with “simpler” cases. The residents here work hard but I found that usually they were looking for work to do rather than having it.

Didactics: 2 times a week. Pretty standard academic schedule. Big emphasis on this program is their skills lab which is open 24/7. It is expected externs and residents will utilize the lab to practice suturing, hand ties, other skills. The skills lab also has access to several cadaver limbs.

OR Experience: OR experience was pretty scarce with the chief residents getting most cases regardless of complexity and interns basically assisting in off service surgical cases(ortho, plastics etc) I personally didn’t think there was nearly enough surgical volume to support the 6 residents they had and I think the residents experience reflected that. Also, some of the attendings were pretty quick to take the knife even on some of the straight forward cases. Having said that this program does see a wide variety of pathology and actually a decent amount of trauma for being a community hospital. Dr Basile is doing quite a few TARs

Clinic Experience: The strength of this program is clinic. Residents are in podiatry clinic up to 3-4 times a week. Residents are pretty hands on in clinic and the more senior they are the more autonomy they have. Pathology is diverse and they see a wide range of everything.

Research Opportunities: another strength of this program. The Cooks are great researchers in the field and continue to produce and publish quality research. This definitely rubs off on the residents as each of them followed suit and were involved in several projects and papers.

Lifestyle: Perhaps the most perplexing aspect of the program. With the case load at MAH being limited it seemed like a lot of the time residents were just hanging around looking for “busy work” to do. Many times there were 3-4 residents in on one case with 2 scrubbed and the other 2 just simply observing. The lifestyle wasn’t bad it just definitely was a first for me.

Pros:
-Boston
-Dr. Basile
-Research opportunities
-Clinic and billing

Cons:
-low surgical volume
-difficult attendings at times
-lots of “busy work”


Overall Conclusion:
I think this program definitely has some ups and downs but overall will prepare a resident to run a successful private practice. There are some issues, like every other program that need some improvement but some great strengths as well
 
[[[[Anonymous submission]]]]

Program Name: Hoboken University Medical Center
General Program: PMSR/RRA
Attendings: you scrub in with several attendings. Some attendings are nice, some are
rude, dismissive and do not want to teach.
Residents: 5
Didactics: None, the program director does not care. Will cancel academics every week
and it is online.
OR experience: Mediocre at best. The attendings do not hand the blade. The residents
cannot suture or do hand ties. The residents double and triple scrub cases. The
program directors’ husband does scopes that are not needed and he is not ABFAS
certified. PGY1s cannot even do a toe amputation without a PGY2 or PGY3 in the room.
You will leave the program needing a fellowship.
Clinic Experience: a resident run clinic without an attending. Residents struggle to
diagnosis and treat the patients.
Research Opportunities: none, the program director does not care for research.
Lifestyle: you have no life because you are on call for 3 hospitals. You get consulted for
wounds. You clip toenails on the floors.
Pros: None
Cons: The residents, program director, and attendings are toxic. You do not get good
surgical training. You will need a fellowship to feel confident in your surgical abilities.
They do not get their numbers, but they say they do because you double and triple
scrub into cases.
Overall Conclusion: this program constantly scrambles for a reason. If you are in the
New Jersey, NYC, PA area do not come to this program. They do not care for their
residents and the pay is awful. You only get 2 weeks PTO. The program director is only
taking students that are good on paper meaning high GPAs, scholarships, tutors.
 
[[[[Anonymous submission]]]]

Program Name: Morristown
General Program: PMSR/RRA
Attendings: you scrub in with several attendings. Some attendings are nice, some are
rude, dismissive and do not want to teach.
Residents: 3
Didactics: every Monday or Thursday at 6am.
OR experience: Mediocre at best. The attendings do not hand the blade. The residents
cannot suture or do hand ties. The residents double and triple scrub cases. You will
leave the program needing a fellowship.
Clinic Experience: Residents go to clinic, but they do not do anything. Everything is
done by the attending.
Research Opportunities: the program director forces you to do research to graduate.
Lifestyle: you have no life because you are on call for 2 hospitals. You get consulted for
wounds.
Pros: None
Cons: The residents and some attendings are toxic. You do not get good surgical
training. You will need a fellowship to feel confident in your surgical abilities. They do not
get their numbers, but they say they do because you double and triple scrub into cases.

Overall Conclusion: this program constantly scrambles for a reason. If you are in the
New Jersey, NYC, PA area do not come to this program. They do not care for their
residents and the pay is awful.
 
[[[[Anonymous submission]]]]

Program Name: Central Michigan University
General Program: PMSR/RRA
Attendings: 4 main attendings. The program director is toxic. The program director will
get reported at least once every two weeks because he is rude and dismissive to the
ancillary staff in the hospitals and his private practice. The program director will yell and
throw things at students and residents in the OR and in his private clinic. The program
director does not hand the blade and is racist, sexist, homophobic.
Residents: 2
Didactics: every Monday at 6am before the attendings go to their private clinic.
OR experience: Mediocre at best. The attendings do not hand the blade. The residents
cannot suture or do hand ties.
Clinic Experience: not a lot of clinic exposure. Will go two months out of the year to the
program director and assistant program directors private practices to gain clinic
exposure. Residents are mainly in the hospital.
Research Opportunities: none, the program director does not care for research.
Lifestyle: you have no life because you are on call for 1 hospital. You get consulted for
wounds.
Pros: None
Cons: The program director is very toxic. You do not get good surgical training. You will
need a fellowship to feel confident in your surgical abilities. They do not get their
numbers, but they say they do because you double scrub into cases. The program
director will curse the residents and ancillary staff. The program director in the OR will
throw things at his residents. The program director is so toxic a PGY2 had to transfer.
Overall Conclusion: the program would be great if the program director was fired.
 
[[[[Anonymous submission]]]]

Program Name: Geisinger
General Program: PMSR/RRA
Attendings: 3 main attendings. You scrub in with several different attendings. The
program director is toxic. The program is passively aggressive and does not care for the
residents. The attendings are good at elective surgeries not trauma surgeries.
Residents: 5
Didactics: every Thursday then residents go back to clinic.
OR experience: Mediocre at best. The attendings do not hand the blade. The residents
cannot suture or do hand ties.
Clinic Experience: the clinic is in a mall in Scranton. You will treat patients while music is
being blasted. The residents do nothing in clinic, the attendings do everything even a
simple ankle injection.
Research Opportunities: the program director forces the residents to do research.
Lifestyle: you have no life because you are on call for 2 hospitals. You get consulted for
wounds.
Pros: None

Cons: The residents, program director, and attendings are toxic. You do not get good
surgical training. You will need a fellowship to feel confident in your surgical abilities.
They do not get their numbers, but they say they do because you double and triple
scrub into cases.
Overall Conclusion: this program constantly scrambles for a reason. They do not care
for their residents and the pay is awful.
 
[[[[Anonymous submission]]]]

Program Name: University Hospital Newark
General Program: PMSR/RRA
Attendings: you scrub in with 4 main attendings and outside attendings. One main
attending is intense will call you stupid in the OR. The outside attendings some are nice,
some are rude, dismissive and do not want to teach.
Residents: 4
Didactics: weekly academics on Wednesday mornings. The PD doesn’t care about
research.
OR experience: Mediocre at best. The attendings do not hand the blade. The residents
cannot suture or do hand ties. The residents double and triple scrub cases. PGY1s
cannot even do a toe amputation without a PGY2 or PGY3 in the room. You will leave
the program needing a fellowship.
Clinic Experience: clinic is every day, and it is long. Clinic will end at 8pm. There is two
clinics and residents can’t even clip toenails without the attending seeing the patient
first.
Research Opportunities: none, the program director does not care for research.
Lifestyle: you have no life because you are on call for 2 hospitals. You get consulted for
wounds.
Pros: None
Cons: The residents, program director, and attendings are toxic. You do not get good
surgical training. You will need a fellowship to feel confident in your surgical abilities.
They do not get their numbers, but they say they do because you double and triple
scrub into cases.
Overall Conclusion: clinic is horrible. Daily rounding as a group in the mornings. One
attending will make you cry and sweat the entire day.
 
PTPuser said:
Program Name: University Hospital Newark
General Program: PMSR/RRA
Attendings: you scrub in with 4 main attendings and outside attendings. One main
attending is intense will call you stupid in the OR. The outside attendings some are nice,
some are rude, dismissive and do not want to teach.
Residents: 4
Didactics: weekly academics on Wednesday mornings. The PD doesn’t care about
research.
OR experience: Mediocre at best. The attendings do not hand the blade. The residents
cannot suture or do hand ties. The residents double and triple scrub cases. PGY1s
cannot even do a toe amputation without a PGY2 or PGY3 in the room. You will leave
the program needing a fellowship.
Clinic Experience: clinic is every day, and it is long. Clinic will end at 8pm. There is two
clinics and residents can’t even clip toenails without the attending seeing the patient
first.
Research Opportunities: none, the program director does not care for research.
Lifestyle: you have no life because you are on call for 2 hospitals. You get consulted for
wounds.
Pros: None
Cons: The residents, program director, and attendings are toxic. You do not get good
surgical training. You will need a fellowship to feel confident in your surgical abilities.
They do not get their numbers, but they say they do because you double and triple
scrub into cases.
Overall Conclusion: clinic is horrible. Daily rounding as a group in the mornings. One
attending will make you cry and sweat the entire day.
Click to expand...

Big emphasis the toxicity of this program. Absolutely horrid place to be as well as the hospital and area (Newark) itself. It is a very hostile environment and clinic is indeed horrendous. A resident either transfers or the program goes one or multiple spots unmatched every year despite having adequate surgical exposure. The residents seem very stressed and unhappy as well as the attendings.
 
I'm going to ask those of you who are contributing future write ups to not use a base template for every single post like the 3 above.

These programs probably are as toxic as the writer says they are. But the authenticity of the submission goes down when the same things are repeated over and over. It makes it hard to decipher what is the programs fault and what is the writers fault.

Be as critical and brutal as you want- that's what gives these reviews value. But please do not copy paste a default answer.
 
Oh my, I just finished my lunch and already we're serving afternoon tea
 
Weirdy said:
....

These programs probably are as toxic as the writer says they are. But the authenticity of the submission goes down when the same things are repeated over and over. It makes it hard to decipher what is the programs fault and what is the writers fault....
Click to expand...
I agree. It's also hard to have basis for comparison when all programs visited "program constantly scrambles for a reason." That's largely an externship selection issue.

Central Mich is a newer one. Director is an older Kernel who can be polarizing. I met him a few times. He probably means well... but didn't resonate with me.

The big question (lesson) here is: why set clerkships at places with history of scramble or unproven results? Everyone knows podiatry has some very BAD programs. Many should not be accredited.

Pick the best clerkships possible and visit the unproven and backup types. Even if you're not a stellar student, programs take far more clerks than residents... you can get a month at some good or even excellent ones. You'll learn more, see what good residency looks like, and might gel well and have a chance to match a good one if you get yourself into that environment of success.

This will be a recurring theme with greed of pod schools, students' fear of not matching, cpme not shutting down failure residencies:
Students who are not high rank will aim low and clerk bad programs. No! Do the best you can. Aim for learning and best options. The bottom of the barrel ones will be there with visit or interview or scramble. Don't waste your limited clerk months on proven failures.

Go where you are treated best. Leave the stinkers for scramble and visit only. 👍
 
Last edited:
Does anybody have any reviews or insight on VA Puget Sound at Seattle and North Colorado Medical Center?
 
Lol best template ever. But imagine externing 5 places and all being bad

However I will say some default answers are accurate. 90% of programs don't know what publishable research looks like. That's podiatry.
Most programs you have no life first two yrs.
Most programs have terrible teachers
Most programs make you run clinic. Holding your hand comes down to attending liability and hospital rules.
Most programs have podiatrists who are misrable and toxic. Welcome to healthcare.

Lots to take away from these reviews.
 
Have to pick externships for this year and while I want to be a well rounded podiatrist, I hope to goto a program that is heavy on trauma. Any residencies y'all recommend that I goto? Would hopefully like to either be in the tristate area, Los Angeles, or Florida (near Miami). TIA!
 
motorboy said:
Have to pick externships for this year and while I want to be a well rounded podiatrist, I hope to goto a program that is heavy on trauma. Any residencies y'all recommend that I goto? Would hopefully like to either be in the tristate area, Los Angeles, or Florida (near Miami). TIA!
Click to expand...
Consider a fellowship, or possibly two.
 
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