Don't know much about the Philly programs. Upcoming interviews at Drexel and Jefferson. Can anyone provide any insight into these programs. Thinking GI at this point. Thanks
So in the Philly landscape there are a lot of players. UPenn, Jeff, Drexel, Lankenau, Virtua, Crozer, Bryn Mawr, Einstein, Temple, and even Christiana isn't out of play. So knowing that its mostly UPenn v. Jeff in the city proper, both big teaching institutes, both with world class attendings.
So pros of Jeff:
+ Faculty, I'd say 7/8ths of the medical attendings love to teach. Like will not shut up levels of teaching.
+ Residents, lots of them, and they all hang out together....all the time. It's not an act they put on during interview day. They really are that tight knit.
+ Nursing, MAGNET hospital and for 4/5ths of the nurses it shows. They know a lot about patients, are helpful in correcting mistakes, and never had an order/lab draw issue (overall VERY LOW levels of scutwork, labs are drawn without hesitation and on time, you have to get things that are like RIGHT NOW urgent) There is a PICC team on site and they are pretty darn quick about getting things done in a timely fashion.
+ Diversity of patients- It's in center city philly so you get the gamut. We have a lot of refugees that come in, private payers, and the elderly...so you'll see it all.
+ For GI, we do Liver transplant and have Colorectal surgery as well, you have a hepatology service as one of your general months and you will be able to work up liver failure like nobody's business. You also get to see UC/Chron's treatments and different surgical treatments for common ailments. There is a large endo-suite as well.
+ Location. If you like the big city life, it's right next to about 10 bars (all of which have happy hours adjusted for medical people), you have all major sports, a good public transport system, fun free city events, and amazing restaurants (When you're there please try to get at LEAST some Federal Doughnuts...also avoid Geno's for cheese-steaks, that's there for tourists and it tastes like crap)
+ High board pass rate and fellowship match rate is pretty damn high with both in house and east coast matches. Jeff is a big name in the East and opens a lot of doors.
+ Food provided at noon-conference. Your "Jeff" card money works at a lot of the nearby restaurants (including an Au Bon Pain connected to the hospital and a Starbucks about 100-150 feet from the hospital)
Neutral:
* They run short/long call for admitting (so black, one, one, and gold weekends) Services are usually pretty busy. They run a 1 upper, 1 intern, 1 sub-i (if applicable), 2 med student team, so you are capped at 14 which isn't too bad.
* Decent cafeteria with a wide variety of options, including a power hour (coffee for $0.50), however, its not open 24/7 and nearby restaurants also close around 11pm/midnight so overnight food can be rough.
Cons:
- Still using paper charts. There is an online "chart," but its proprietary and all you can do is order things and get results (consults are transcribed into it, but usually a while after the note appears in the chart). Nurses really try to keep the charts near the desk, but sometimes they go missing, or someone else is using them, or you have to go back to the floor to put a note in the chart...can put a real crimp on your day. Also reading handwriting can be a pain, requiring extra phone calls. There is a separate outpatient EMR (allscripts) which can sometime get annoying alt+tabbing between all the different systems when they get admitted. (They're getting EPIC supposedly late 2016/early 2017, doesn't help us that much)
- 4% in-city tax (live or work in the city you automatically pay 4% to the city ON TOP of state and federal taxes) which at their rate comes out to about $2000/year going to a tax (this would also apply at Drexel)
- Housing costs, its philly so yea...anything near center city is usually pretty expensive if you want space. That being said they all do it already so there are options.
That's all I have for Jeff, don't know much about Drexel