Program Name: Reading Hospital
General Program/Hospital Info:
https://www.readinghealth.org/education-and-research/academic-affairs/residencies/podiatry/
The program offers an open house the first Friday of each month, which I was able to attend. I also got to see a good presentation of the program from one of the residents as well. Initial impressions are that this hospital is large (~800 beds), beautiful, busy, and more than adequate to support the 6 residents they have. Located a little over an hour from Philadelphia. PMSR/RRA. The Program is relatively young, established in 2013. There are no orthopedic residents at the hospital so residents are able to be first assist for ortho cases if available. Busy but efficiently run inpatient service.
Attendings:
20+ on staff. Probably very similar in diversity to any other program. Attendings from group practices, solo, ortho.
Residents:
Two residents per year. Laid back group, but very sharp group.
Didactics:
Radiology Rounds weekly, chapter reviews weekly, monthly cadaver labs (on site at the hospital morgue). Monthly journal club, student presentations, rep workshops. residents go to AO course, scopes course, any other course they want.
OR Experience:
From a presentation I saw, they just opened a $350M expansion with new OR’s. The residents cover just one (huge) hospital and a handful of nearby surgery centers. Residents rarely double scrub. No TAR’s, occasional ex-fix, enough trauma, plenty of “bread and butter”. Overall the training seems to be very good. At the open house, one of the second year residents showed us his PRR numbers and he had met all his surgical numbers early into 2nd year.
Clinic Experience:
Resident run clinic two afternoons a week, most residents attend regardless of what other rotation they may be on. Residents get to schedule surgeries, see everything from pre-op to post-op care. They also have Podiatry office rotations, not entirely sure what that entails.
Research Opportunities:
Not sure. Probably what you make of it. Website says they get a “research” month during 3rd year.
Lifestyle:
Most call is taken 1st year, some 2nd year and a couple days a month 3rd year.
PGY-1 $53,700 +$1,200 housing bonus + $3,000 CME + 3 weeks vacation
PGY-2 $56,600 +$1,200 housing bonus + $4,500 CME + 4 weeks vacation
PGY-3 $58,500 +$1,200 housing bonus + $4,500 CME + 4 weeks vacation
Pros:
Excellent training, good surgical volume, many attendings
Free food at any of the Hospitals 3 cafeterias or 3 cafes (Starbucks included).
Morgue for regular dissection labs.
By far, the best, nicest facilities I have seen.
The residents have a huge corner office/lounge with their own individual work stations, lockers, couches, copy/fax machine.
They have their own classroom, big hospital library, private call room.
They use a good EMR (EPIC) some of the residents use dictation devices for notes.
CME money is absolutely outrageous. $12k for 3 years!? Go to any training course you want.
Minimal driving.
On-site fitness center, on-site child care.
Residents are treated extremely well here.
https://www.readinghealth.org/education-and-research/academic-affairs/residencies/benefits/
Cons:
No TAR, I heard that cut time is hit and miss, some attendings let residents do everything, others are slow to pass the knife.
Overall Conclusion:
This is a great young program, pretty much doing all the right things. With the combination of a resident run clinic, high surgery volume, on-site cadaver lab, amazing resources to augment resident training, you would come out of this program very well rounded and very well trained. This program was likely a hidden gem as they didn't take students for clerkship until recently. Plenty of buzz around this program for class of 2018.