Hi there,
I live and attend medical school in Washington, DC and have rotated through Washington Hospital Center. Their General Surgery residency is not as competitive as Georgetown's because WHC is a community program and not university-based. This program still attracts and accepts FMG's and does not fill all of its categorical slots.
The major disadvantage of this program is the teaching. The attending physicians are private practictioners who admit patients to WHC and like having residents cover their patients. This is an extremely busy residency program. The quality of teaching will depend highly on the interest of the attending in providing the teaching for you. This can be variable.
The residents are a diverse bunch with some off-shore grads thrown in. They seem to be fairly supportive of each other. Residents from this program do get into fellowships. Research opportunities are available. There is a new head of residency education who is dedicated to upgrading the teaching in this program.
I interviewed and ranked this program but I ranked it last on my rank list. I would go there but this is definitely not my first choice mostly because of the inconsistant teaching. The hospital plant is not bad but there are severe nursing shortages. This hospital is still trying to recover from a nursing strike two years ago.
Medstar Corporation, the parent company that owns WHC has just acquired Georgetown University Hospital so the Georgetown surgery residents will be rotating through WHC. I am sure that the acquisition of Georgetown University Hospital will be good for both programs.
I chose not to interview at Georgetown even though it is considered a more prestigous program because of its state of flux currently.
