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hey, i was wonderfing if anyone out there knows enough about the portland community programs to break them down for me, i.e. quality, resident morale, hours, fellowships, etc....
thanks!
thanks!
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portland programs
- Thread starter med03ibd
- Start date
Hi there. I'm from St. Vincent's so I can give you my best perspective, but keep in mind that it's very hard to judge other programs when most of it is based on hearsay. After I spew my thoughts, I ultimately suggest that you speak with residents from each program to get the most accurate information about their respective residencies.
First and foremost, I genuinely don't think you can go wrong academically with any of the Portland programs. All of them will provide great educational opportunities. All provide strong teaching and focus on evidence-based medicine. I also think the morale is good at all 3 programs (although I heard some unfounded rumor this year about the Legacy folks being less so, but that was the first time I ever heard anything of the like). I think there are differences in their personalities and each have pros/cons. That said....
Fellowship: St. V's has about 50% going onto fellowship. Never had anyone not secure a spot. The residents get to know the specialists quite well so they make individualized phone calls on your behalf when interview season comes around. I believe only a small number of people at Providence go onto subspecialize (their website notes the exact percentage); nontheless, that doesn't mean they can't provide a program that leads to successful matches. Rather I could only surmise that they attract more people interested in primary care. I have no idea about the Legacy stats on this issue.
Work-load wise, I know people at both St. V's and Providence work hard but they have night float systems in place and are considered very humane programs. I believe the same is true for Legacy, but I can't confirm it.
St. V's and Prov Portland are under the same hospital umbrella (the Providence system) so have many similar components and benefits. St. V's is on the west side of Portland and subsequently has a greater % of pts that have insurance. So in clinic, you may have ~50% of pts on medicare (giving you a large geriatrics population), ~20% w/o insurance or low-income, and ~30% with private insurance (ranging from blue-collar workers to high-ranking people at Intel and Nike). Prov Portland, based purely on location, sees a much higher % of the indigent population and subsequently deals much more with the psychosocial issues often associated with this population (alcoholism, IVDU, etc.).
St. V's is the only program that requires 3 months of ICU during year 1. This could be good or bad depending upon your interests, but you certainly get good at dealing with acutely ill patients and you do a ton of procedures.
I believe St. V's has the best clinic set-up for both educational opportunities and continuity of care because you have designated clinic preceptors that you work with each week and who know your patients so they can provide teaching that incorporates each individual's psychosocial issues. Both St. V's and Providence have paperless clinics (using Logician), but St. V's has been spectacular in configuring the program to maximize all it's benefits.
St. V's and Prov are both one-hospital programs. Legacy is two (Good Sam and Emmanuel). We one-hospital programs think we've got it better because there's no travel time b/w hospitals and your clinic is always on-site. Plus, the residents became more of a family since we see each other qd. Legacy sees their set-up as an advantage b/c you get exposure to 2 different work environments. So they both have pros/cons.
Ok, I've probably rambled for longer than you want to read!! I hope it help though. While you may have surmised from my writing, I think St. V's is great and I certainly am biased towards what they have to offer. However, I know that all programs are incredibly strong academically and they are worth checking out to see which is best for you.
Good luck.
First and foremost, I genuinely don't think you can go wrong academically with any of the Portland programs. All of them will provide great educational opportunities. All provide strong teaching and focus on evidence-based medicine. I also think the morale is good at all 3 programs (although I heard some unfounded rumor this year about the Legacy folks being less so, but that was the first time I ever heard anything of the like). I think there are differences in their personalities and each have pros/cons. That said....
Fellowship: St. V's has about 50% going onto fellowship. Never had anyone not secure a spot. The residents get to know the specialists quite well so they make individualized phone calls on your behalf when interview season comes around. I believe only a small number of people at Providence go onto subspecialize (their website notes the exact percentage); nontheless, that doesn't mean they can't provide a program that leads to successful matches. Rather I could only surmise that they attract more people interested in primary care. I have no idea about the Legacy stats on this issue.
Work-load wise, I know people at both St. V's and Providence work hard but they have night float systems in place and are considered very humane programs. I believe the same is true for Legacy, but I can't confirm it.
St. V's and Prov Portland are under the same hospital umbrella (the Providence system) so have many similar components and benefits. St. V's is on the west side of Portland and subsequently has a greater % of pts that have insurance. So in clinic, you may have ~50% of pts on medicare (giving you a large geriatrics population), ~20% w/o insurance or low-income, and ~30% with private insurance (ranging from blue-collar workers to high-ranking people at Intel and Nike). Prov Portland, based purely on location, sees a much higher % of the indigent population and subsequently deals much more with the psychosocial issues often associated with this population (alcoholism, IVDU, etc.).
St. V's is the only program that requires 3 months of ICU during year 1. This could be good or bad depending upon your interests, but you certainly get good at dealing with acutely ill patients and you do a ton of procedures.
I believe St. V's has the best clinic set-up for both educational opportunities and continuity of care because you have designated clinic preceptors that you work with each week and who know your patients so they can provide teaching that incorporates each individual's psychosocial issues. Both St. V's and Providence have paperless clinics (using Logician), but St. V's has been spectacular in configuring the program to maximize all it's benefits.
St. V's and Prov are both one-hospital programs. Legacy is two (Good Sam and Emmanuel). We one-hospital programs think we've got it better because there's no travel time b/w hospitals and your clinic is always on-site. Plus, the residents became more of a family since we see each other qd. Legacy sees their set-up as an advantage b/c you get exposure to 2 different work environments. So they both have pros/cons.
Ok, I've probably rambled for longer than you want to read!! I hope it help though. While you may have surmised from my writing, I think St. V's is great and I certainly am biased towards what they have to offer. However, I know that all programs are incredibly strong academically and they are worth checking out to see which is best for you.
Good luck.
Research opportunities exist but are limited to clinical research not lab. Some people at our program develop clinical research projects of interest and find attendings to help them on it (staff always willing to support such endeavors). Other times, residents find someone working on a research project and join in. I would say it's not a dominating feature of our program, but available for those interested.
OHSU compared w/ St. V: Overall, OHSU residents seem like a happy bunch. Obviously more opportunity for research at OHSU (but don't know how easy it is to get involved). OHSU w/ many more residents so I don't think they have as close of a family feeling like at the community programs. They also rotate at the V.A. (which I've heard good things about). We don't. Parking is a stinking nightmare at the U. and costs $$$ so many opt to live w/in walking distance or on bus route.
Because of the large number of residents at OHSU, it's more difficult to get everybody's schedule exactly how they want it. I believe (need to double check) that everybody is given a number of "points" that they can divide up in whatever fashion to "buy" certain electives, certain vacation months, etc.. The more points you put in towards one particular thing, the more likely you'll get it (cause others that 'bid' higher with their points can beat you out). There's much more flexibility at St. V's. You essentially decide which months to do electives (that gets set at the beginning of each year), which electives you do for any given year (can be set during the year) and with whom you work.
Much more procedure experience at St. V's because we don't have fellows taking our LPs, central lines, etc.
Being a community hospital where private attendings admit to the resident teams, a ward team at St. V's may have a small handful of different private attendings who serve as educators/advisors for the patients on your service. Like most university settings, OHSU will have one specified attending for all the patients on a team's service. I think this is the biggest difference. Both situations have pros/cons which would take too long to get into here.
I don't think there's any difference in the types of medical problems you see at either place. All the resident hospitals in portland serve as referral sites for outside hospitals so each place (including the university) gets both bread-and-butter and unusual cases. The community hospitals here are self-standing in diagnostic/treatment quality so don't ever send pts to OHSU because the problem is too difficult. All programs are strongly evidence-based medicine. I've heard opinions from attendings/specialists at our hospital who feel there's no difference in the quality of education b/w the community hospitals and OHSU and some argue you do even better at the community hospitals. However, I'm sure there's differing opinions from people you speak w/ at OHSU!
Whoo, I've babbled too long again! Hope the info is helpful though.
OHSU compared w/ St. V: Overall, OHSU residents seem like a happy bunch. Obviously more opportunity for research at OHSU (but don't know how easy it is to get involved). OHSU w/ many more residents so I don't think they have as close of a family feeling like at the community programs. They also rotate at the V.A. (which I've heard good things about). We don't. Parking is a stinking nightmare at the U. and costs $$$ so many opt to live w/in walking distance or on bus route.
Because of the large number of residents at OHSU, it's more difficult to get everybody's schedule exactly how they want it. I believe (need to double check) that everybody is given a number of "points" that they can divide up in whatever fashion to "buy" certain electives, certain vacation months, etc.. The more points you put in towards one particular thing, the more likely you'll get it (cause others that 'bid' higher with their points can beat you out). There's much more flexibility at St. V's. You essentially decide which months to do electives (that gets set at the beginning of each year), which electives you do for any given year (can be set during the year) and with whom you work.
Much more procedure experience at St. V's because we don't have fellows taking our LPs, central lines, etc.
Being a community hospital where private attendings admit to the resident teams, a ward team at St. V's may have a small handful of different private attendings who serve as educators/advisors for the patients on your service. Like most university settings, OHSU will have one specified attending for all the patients on a team's service. I think this is the biggest difference. Both situations have pros/cons which would take too long to get into here.
I don't think there's any difference in the types of medical problems you see at either place. All the resident hospitals in portland serve as referral sites for outside hospitals so each place (including the university) gets both bread-and-butter and unusual cases. The community hospitals here are self-standing in diagnostic/treatment quality so don't ever send pts to OHSU because the problem is too difficult. All programs are strongly evidence-based medicine. I've heard opinions from attendings/specialists at our hospital who feel there's no difference in the quality of education b/w the community hospitals and OHSU and some argue you do even better at the community hospitals. However, I'm sure there's differing opinions from people you speak w/ at OHSU!
Whoo, I've babbled too long again! Hope the info is helpful though.
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