St. Luke's sucks

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hotdogz

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Hi all, i'm gonna get right down to it from the title. I'm a CA1 (NOT AT ST. LUKES), and have bunch of friends at various other programs and one at St. Luke's. After hearing this person's stories of how they mistreat residents, I had to say something. St. Luke's is a sweatshop, plantation, or what other form of taking advantage of the common man you can think of. See what they do is they entice you with their columbia affiliation (who cares), their great pain/regional fellowship, and they even throw you a boat cruise in the beginning of the year so everyone is happy. They also are pretty good with giving didactics in the first month. But then their true colors come out. I'm not making this stuff up. I have a close friend in the program and seeing that person miserable really irks me.
Like some of the scutwork articles state, the OR will run 24/7 at the expense of residents. The number system is a joke. getting out at 6 pm is a godsend. try 8 or 9 at times. What these idiots don't realize is that they don't know how to keep their employees happy nor do they listen to their concerns. It is a private practice where the ******* chairman counts his millions and refuses to hire CRNA's to give relief to these hardworking residents. The fool is retiring, how many millions do you need to count you *****. I know most of you will come at me hard, so bring it. I know residency is supposed to be tough and there are worse fields workwise than ours, but come on. These people have spouses, kids, their own affairs/errands to tend to, and you need time to yourself. How can they have any of that in a place like this? Why are some programs able to keep their residents happy and some not? Yea, it's only 3 years, but these 3 years are also crucial for your own personal development. You need time for yourself, to make yourself happy, not to stay till 9 pm at night to do some stupid D&C or some other nonemergent case just so you can pocket more cash.
It's simple, just like most work, medicine is a business. Noone teaches you that, and it's not about saving lives/caring for people. That's utter bull****. Do cases, make money, become partner, make even more money. People are just greedy pricks who will sacrifice their own family for more money.
And yea, if you don't like it, then leave medicine, i've heard that already. But when you have invested so much, it's not that easy to leave, and you know there are some programs that actually give a damn about their residents. So why not st. luke's.
Bottom line, to those applying to st. luke's or starting, DON'T GO. Your life will take a big hit. The hours worked, the constant politics, noone sticking up for you. Go to a program that will take care of you and understands your needs. Hiring a few CRNA's will not kill you. To all those currently at Luke's, REVOLT. Get attendings on your side, the good ones at least and say something.
As for me, i value life more than anyting else, and anesthesia gives that flexibility in terms of how much you want to work. ASA 1-2's at surgicenter or MAC/sedation cases are for me at the GI suite, work 7-3, come home and spend the time that matters with my wife and kids. Bring it people.
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hotdogz said:
Hi all, i'm gonna get right down to it from the title. I'm a CA1 (NOT AT ST. LUKES), and have bunch of friends at various other programs and one at St. Luke's. After hearing this person's stories of how they mistreat residents, I had to say something. St. Luke's is a sweatshop, plantation, or what other form of taking advantage of the common man you can think of. See what they do is they entice you with their columbia affiliation (who cares), their great pain/regional fellowship, and they even throw you a boat cruise in the beginning of the year so everyone is happy. They also are pretty good with giving didactics in the first month. But then their true colors come out. I'm not making this stuff up. I have a close friend in the program and seeing that person miserable really irks me.
Like some of the scutwork articles state, the OR will run 24/7 at the expense of residents. The number system is a joke. getting out at 6 pm is a godsend. try 8 or 9 at times. What these idiots don't realize is that they don't know how to keep their employees happy nor do they listen to their concerns. It is a private practice where the ******* chairman counts his millions and refuses to hire CRNA's to give relief to these hardworking residents. The fool is retiring, how many millions do you need to count you *****. I know most of you will come at me hard, so bring it. I know residency is supposed to be tough and there are worse fields workwise than ours, but come on. These people have spouses, kids, their own affairs/errands to tend to, and you need time to yourself. How can they have any of that in a place like this? Why are some programs able to keep their residents happy and some not? Yea, it's only 3 years, but these 3 years are also crucial for your own personal development. You need time for yourself, to make yourself happy, not to stay till 9 pm at night to do some stupid D&C or some other nonemergent case just so you can pocket more cash.
It's simple, just like most work, medicine is a business. Noone teaches you that, and it's not about saving lives/caring for people. That's utter bull****. Do cases, make money, become partner, make even more money. People are just greedy pricks who will sacrifice their own family for more money.
And yea, if you don't like it, then leave medicine, i've heard that already. But when you have invested so much, it's not that easy to leave, and you know there are some programs that actually give a damn about their residents. So why not st. luke's.
Bottom line, to those applying to st. luke's or starting, DON'T GO. Your life will take a big hit. The hours worked, the constant politics, noone sticking up for you. Go to a program that will take care of you and understands your needs. Hiring a few CRNA's will not kill you. To all those currently at Luke's, REVOLT. Get attendings on your side, the good ones at least and say something.
As for me, i value life more than anyting else, and anesthesia gives that flexibility in terms of how much you want to work. ASA 1-2's at surgicenter or MAC/sedation cases are for me at the GI suite, work 7-3, come home and spend the time that matters with my wife and kids. Bring it people.
Click to expand...

Is this Houston or NYC?
 
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Unfortunately, he's not a troll. hotdogz, I hope you are doing well and I hope that you don't spend your entire residency focusing on how to do ASA 1 and II cases. You will regret that in your future.
 
Well, the original post is written by someone who barely passed the boards and didn't match into Anesthesia until his third try.
 
Board scores aren't everything. To the OP, thanks for the info, I certainly appreciate all the info I can come across about residency programs. I hope things are going better at your program...best of luck always.
 
Come on, Amyl. This guy is bashing a program in a public forum, calling the director a *****. It's just wrong to do that.

TROLL!!!
 
I understand where you are coming from but that is what this forum is for! ***** might be a little harsh but the info is good to know. Without this forum I would probably end up at a residency program I would hate! All the info here is super valuable for us med students, I would be lost without it. That said I take all the info in and ultimately decide for myself.
If you hate your program PLEASE let us about to go through audition rotations and the match know the inside deal... I am sure it is very hard to get the true sense of the place in a matter of hours between the dinner, tour and interviews.
 
hotdogz said:
ASA 1-2's at surgicenter or MAC/sedation cases are for me at the GI suite, work 7-3, come home and spend the time that matters with my wife and kids.
Click to expand...

I can just see your evaluations now..."HotDogz is a tireless worker, dedicated to his patients and the advancement of the medical practice of anesthesia."

And yea, if you don't like it, then leave medicine. :laugh:

On 2nd thought, is this post mocking the residents who actually feel this way?
 
right on hotdogz!!!
they should focus on building and uplifting the morale of the people in the hospital

to the administrators:
RESPECT PEOPLE'S RIGHTS!!!!
 
That was originally posted over a year ago. Does St. Luke's still suck?

-copro
 
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My next door neighbor is an anesthesiologist resident. (90% of us live in the very nice subsidized housing, one block from the hospital) One of my friends graduated from this program.


Don't really recall many complaints along this line.

Sounds to me like someone isn't speaking truthfully (*gasp* and on the internet too.)

St. Luke's-Roosevelt has nice subsidized housing, great benefits, great salary and is pretty darn compliant with work hours.... even for the surgeons and ortho guys....
 
There must be some SLR residents out there - can they comment? I looked at the posts for SLR in the past 5 yrs and there were mixed comments. Can anyone tell me what its like now and are they happy there? thanks.
 
This is like when a friend comes up to you because they know your a doctor and say "I have this friend with herpes, do you know if its curable?"

This dude is a resident at St Lukes I can Smell it!!
 
I did a significant part of my CA-2 year at a St Lukes (Houston).

I LOVED the (heart) rotation.

Apparently you're talking about another institution.
 
dayz said:
There must be some SLR residents out there - can they comment? I looked at the posts for SLR in the past 5 yrs and there were mixed comments. Can anyone tell me what its like now and are they happy there? thanks.
Click to expand...

I am not a resident at SLR, but I did interview there a while ago and surprisingly, they have made some REALLY GREAT improvements to the program. They have hired a new chairman, hired over 14 new CRNAs with talks of hiring more, and drastically improved their work hours. CA1-2 residents report working 55-65 hours/wk in the General O.R. The Chair's goal is to get the work hours down to 50hr/wk (like it is at Oschner, where he came from). All the residents seemed to be very happy with these changes. In fact, a few of the former residents that had worked under the old "work horse" model commented on how things have changed drastically for the better since they trained. I hope ths helps
 
I can say that the new Chairman is awesome. I know this because he left my program as chairman and became the new chairman at St. Lukes.

My program (Ochsner) has awesome work hours and great CRNA support. He was originally shocked by the work hours when he came from the northeast to New Orleans years ago. He supported our work hours and maintained them throughout his tenure here.

I know nothing about St. Lukes. I wish the new chairman the best.

Cubs
 
I think your information about Saint Luke's is quite dated and somewhat biased. I have been an attending there now for a few years and am very familiar with the place good and bad.
1. CRNAs have been hired and more are being hired to facilitate resident relief. Residents are currently doing 55 hours per week . The new chair wants that to be 50 hours a week and he is spending the money to hire the CRNA staff to make it so
2. The "*****" of whom you speak is the past president of the Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists and the current president of the National Board of Echocardiography and the past president of the Association of Anesthesiology Program Directors---need I go on--we should all be so *****ic. Moreover, he began the process of adding relief workers over a year ago before the new chair arrived
3.The new chair is totally committed to resident education and intends to adopt the Ochsner model in NYC
4.Anyone who thinks the future of anesthesiology is centered on taking care of ASA 1 patients has not been reading the New York Times---the easy stuff is going to be done by sedation nurses--not even CRNAs---you need to take care of ASA 3,4,5 people if you expect a career in anesthesiology over the long term
5. Hyperbole such as yours is counter productive in anesthesiology. Your post seems quite old from 2007 and yet it appears now--could it be that some other program is concerned that Saint Luke's is becoming a "better deal" for residents than some of the other programs in NY---such as the one you may be attending
 
I'm currently a resident at St. Luke's Roosevelt and just wanted to set things straight. It is true that this program used to work their residents fairly hard - the hours use to be long (for anesthesiology standards) but less than 80hrs/wk. However, starting from over a year ago, our department has added full time CRNAs (and CRNA students rotating from UMDNJ.) In addition, we now have a new chair who is completely a resident advocate - his goals are to add additional CRNAs and decrease 24 calls to 14 hrs calls with post call off! For over a year now, I have seen amazing transformations in my program. We work less than 60 hrs/wk and have increased academic activities. There are still days you will get out at 10 pm, but there are also days you'll get out at noon. Lets face it, it IS still a residency where we are suppose to gain enough knowledge and skillsets to ultimately function on our own - you will not attain that working 40hrs/wk over a three year residency.

Overall, I am very happy with my program. The residents get along and spend time outside of the OR together - we are a diverse ethnic mix and come from all over the country. The chief residents who make our monthly schedules try to accomodate our social lives by giving us golden weekends/get out early days/no call on this or that days at our request. The attendings are for the most part wonderful...maybe 95% of them - there are one or two I could live without. The surgeons are fairly benign and our departments get along. The subsidized housing is amazing for the price and nothing beats living across the street from work. The only negative thing use to be the work hours and it has improved drastically. And there will only be more positive changes as time goes on.

Good luck to all of you on your match!
 
you don't have post call off?
seniors are still taking 24 hour calls?
in this economic climate, he is not going to hire more nurses so that residents can work less.

there are other programs in the area that already offer 14 hour calls with post call off starting ca2 year, housing, moonlighting, and decent work hours. as far as not learning what you need to learn in 40 hours a week. i strongly disagree. it's about the variety and breadth of cases, not their duration. rotting in a 14 hour spine case doesn't teach you anything.
 
trinityalumnus said:
Never mind ... saw the Columbia reference. Reading SDN after a big glass of wine is always fun.
Click to expand...



Luckily wine comes in wonderfully large single-serving containers.
 
The chair is basing his staffing plan on what worked for him where he was chair previously at the Ochsner Clinic where there are a great many CRNAS---and the residents I believe had very contained work hours.
ps residents always have had the day off after 24 hour call.
 
Last edited:
boggy said:
The chair is basing his staffing plan on what worked for him where he was chair previously at the Ochsner Clinic where there are a great many CRNAS---and the residents I believe had very contained work hours.
ps residents always have had the day off after 24 hour call.
Click to expand...

Wow, it's news to me that Dr. Santos left Ochsner. He was a huge reason I wanted to match there. I'm almost certain things will get better at SLR with him at the head. I did a month at Ochsner as a 4th year and he was a big resident advocate.

I interviewed at SLR last year (largely in thanks to Dr. Santos, who called personally to get me an interview there), and they were adding more CRNA's to lessen the burden on the residents. The subsidized housing is "meh" but that's coming from someone who has lived in largely rural/suburban type areas. I guess a 750 square foot apartment in Manhattan for $1000 month is nice but I pay that now for my 1700 square foot house with a fenced in back yard in a nice subdivision in Louisville.
 
You know, I don't really know what's going on at St. Luke's, however, the first thought that came to my mind was that:

I find it interesting someone reposted something from 2007 on this forum, a 2 weeks before student rank lists are to be confirmed.

It just sounded malignant to me. Ethics, professionalism, was this not a common theme on the interview trail...Don't know this is the kind of stuff, I carry near and dear to my heart...

Best of luck to all and hope things improve all around for everyone, everywhere :luck:
 
SLR has undergone significant changes in the past few years. The Chair, Dr. Alan Santos is a great resident advocate and is well regarded by the hospital who recruited him back to SLR from Ochsner. The Vice Chair and Program Director, Dr John Wasnick, is a very easy going individual---who works hard to permit you to enjoy your life while you go through residency. The regional experience is great and there is plenty of neuro and OB as well. We do three outside rotations in Manhattan. We do not do heart transplants so better go to Columbia if that is your thing--otherwise residents are diverse in their interest but get along well with one another many living in the hospital housing--which is great if you want to be in Manhattan and not so great if you want a little house on the prairie--you have to choose what works for you--this is a New York program and is intimately linked with the city---Summary, SLR is a solid program with heavy emphasis on regional anesthesia with a central manhattan location.
 
has anyone set up a 4th year away rotation here for next year? i have attempted but have not received any word yet. boggy, if you have any help or insight for me, please private message me. i am very interested in the program
 
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