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PGY3 Overall Rating: 30-Jun- 2010 Teaching: Atmosphere: Research: Schedule The program had gone an immense change since 2008 when it became UPMC Mercy. Patient load has increased and you tend to keep busy during rotations. typically you would do 3 GIM floors, 3-4 electives, 1 month of Night float, 1 month of unit ,1 month of ambulatory. Floors and units are busiest as expected. Floor- starts with sign out at 7 and you leave on alternate days at 7 or 5 pm. 24 hrs calls X2 + 12 hrs X2 over weekends. In units you work 7 am - 7pm/5pm and only off on one day in a week. Few rotations are easygoing with very friendly attendings- Pulm, ID. Neph is busy. GI is crap, Neuro attending makes the rotation one of the worst. Hem/onc is excellent. On electives usually you come by 8-9 and get out by 4-5. 1 weekend call per month. Teaching Faculty on GIM floors are essentially no good for teaching. They are young/mid aged and have just simple concepts known, no big teaching! Few of them have their own concepts which are nowhere to be seen in books- beware of them. Primarily on hospitalist service your major patient load would be druggies and chest pain rule outs. Many of them would be frequent fliers and they would seem part of the hospital family by the time you graduate, you may recall their every minutest detail just by their name/MRN number. Scheduled teaching is 3 days for 1 hour each 10-11am MWF with M-F noon conference and morning rounds 7-8 M-F. Entity called PD rounds are held once for your service where the PD comes and pimps you, gets upset and may throw tantrum- beware of him. In general teaching is what you know or what you would read- attendings won't be of much help- residents may be helpful. noon conferences are generally ok- majority come as attendance is mandatory- come eat their lunch and usually doze off. Grand rounds every thursday morning 8-9 am- are ok- a paradise for people who want to sleep. Speakers are always from UPMC university who boast about their studies and you would get NO sense of it most of the times. Atmosphere Camaraderie is usually good. Few residents can be real pain- they can make your life tough but best thing is to IGNORE them. IMGs about 50-60% are generally fine- won't be super stars but still with decent knowledge. Rest are DOs, no US MDs- they have better places to go. Relationship with attendings is usually good as MAJORITY of attendings are PRIVATE and NOT with university. Hospital is under renovation- would rate it as above average facility - which is decently sized- has most of the procedures done there. Life outside work depends on you- was a laid back program but with new PD who is very pushy people now complain of the pressure and stress. program is notorious for kicking out residents or making them repeat their training for past 2-3 years. residents don't feel secure here. they always talk of unwanted stress in their life due to residency. more than work the pressure from department is bad. program coordinator is very moody and can make your life hell. she likes only few people you can't complain against her with anyone. Conclusion Average/above community program university affiliated. ICU experience is very good the faculty are from University. Cardio is good experience. GIM is learn on your own thing. many rotations are poor and attendings are substandard. patient population is bad due to neighborhood that attracts uninsured druggies who are hungry and come to hospital for the stay. Luckily for them ED welcomes them with open arms and free bed on the medicine floor. Few ED attendings admit almost anyone in the ED- care takers haven't been admitted as of now but soon we could see care takers also getting admitted as they were present in the ED- gross but can happen. Research is non existent- residents do present posters here or there but otherwise nothing is there. fellowship placement depends on residents- 1-2 residents on their own get into fellowships rest go to hospitalist or primary care. Worse few attendings can give negative LOR and you would not get anywhere in fellowship. Once finished i would be able to practice internal medicine as bread and butter would be manageable added advantage would be handling social issues, druggies, hungry, uninsured, alcoholics. I would rate this program on middle of the list- it's okaish to above average program. PD is very moody, picky, cynic and demeaning at times. Overall, pittsburgh is an affordable city, this program is above average, so for three years you should be ok if your expectations are not too high. Changing neuro, GI, geriatrics, few hospitalists faculty may improve this program further. I welcome any queries- thanks for reading the review

Medical Student Overall Rating: 09-Jan- 2006 Teaching: Atmosphere: Research: Schedule I interviewed at this program recently. The schedule is pretty doable, and probably one of the best in the country. The day starts at 7 am for everyone (since there is no intern pre-rounding). At 7, the night float team signs out the cases to the morning firm team lead by a hospitalist faculty member. There is a morning report at 7:15 every morning for the night team. The day float people have their own morning report while on the floor.Overall the program is quite big (15 interns per year plus 15 transitional / year). After morning report, there are work rounds with residents and then attending rounds at 10:30 am M_W_F. Thursdays have grandrounds at 8 am and a patient management seminar with interactive lecture based on cases. There are regularly scheduled noon conferences with food provided everyday, which are good for the most part. Overall one does about 4 months of floors (that includes 1.5 months of night)and plenty of electives even in the intern year.The routine work hours are 7 am until 5. You can leave at 4 when you have the clinic (one half day per week). On the call day, you leave at 7 when you sign out to the night float team. They dont have the q4 call system..Call is overnight on friday when on floor and half day on saturdays...you dont have to stay overnight ever unless you are on night float. Teaching Faculty are good for the most part and take an interest in teaching..The PD is superb!!! Dr. Mohn is a delightful person,very experienced and extremely helpful..Conferences, reports and seminars gives u enough didactic training..Mercy has a good patient population mix from the middle class to the poor and you get exposed to day to day bread and butter cases. Atmosphere Lots of FMGs in the program (almost all are pretty good). Also has a lot of DOs and some american grads from Pennsylvania state..Overall, a diverse group of people. Defintely a life out of work..Enough retreats, ski trips, parties etc continously being organized. The people here are very nice and that is probably the biggest strength of the program.Peers help out each other all the time..The hospital is very new and well maintained and looks like a great place to work. Nursing staff is excellent and there is almost no scutwork here. Conclusion What stands out is the people, a good patient population mix, camaraderie, the non-malignant friendly atmosphere, $2000 for food/year (apart from the food from the conferences and the drug reps), retreats, good didactics, excellent PD who goes out of his way to help you out, excellent work environment,great gym within the hospital, time for educational activities, electives allowed anywhere across the country,,etc.etc.. Cons: Very little research (but decent clinical research going on), not much of an affiliation with the university, not the best fellowship match (but pretty decent). Its a good place to be!

Medical Student (Interview) Overall Rating: 11-Jul- 2005 Teaching: Atmosphere: Research: Schedule I am a fellow, basically a pass out from Mercy Hospital. I recently visited Mercy and I felt if anything which has changed is an improvement in the program.(I am trying to update my status but for some reasons it's still showing me as medical student...those good days!!!) On floors the work hours start at 7 and end at 7 in the evening. The resident and intern alternate every other day from 3-7 in the PM.( I really liked this neat idea) Then they have this night float. The cardiology department is very strong with tons of exposure, the only thing which is lacking is a formal fellowship. They are recruiting new faculties every year. Teaching Overall my basis of judging the faculty is on the basis of their approach. The faculy here is very friendly and know what to do. As any other place, some are exceptionally good teachers and some can be said that an intern knows more than them. If you rate a faculty good or not good on the basis of research this is probably not the place for a research oriented faculty. In general the learning curve is very balanced, both on the basis of experience from the wide variety of cases and from the inputs from the faculty. The board pass rate is in high 90 percent so I take the formal didactic is fairly good, or simply residents are fairly well taught. Atmosphere I think environment of the program which makes this program stand out. Friendliness is I guess hereditary. Most of the residents are "non-malignant" partly because it's a reflection of their attendings. Conclusion Before I finish, I do want to add the drawbacks of this program. First of all if you want to go in fellowships you have to make extra efforts. Unlike many other programs where research is practically forced on each resident. But if you try even a little bit harder, you can make it. ( I did it!) If you want to work as an internist, put this program on the top of your list.

Recent Residency Graduate Overall Rating: 28-Dec- 2004 Teaching: Atmosphere: Research: Schedule I am recent graduate of the program. The work schedule is well within the RRC regulations and allows for enough time for a family life. The day starts at 7AM and usually ends by around 5pm. The inpatient services are relatively busy, but the amount of scutwork is kept to a minimum. Teaching Most of the faculty was excellent. The teaching especially from the specialist was very good. Most of the faculty members were easily approachable and didn't mind being curbsided for questions. There are regular scheduled lectures (noon conference and subspecialty morning report) along with interactive teaching rounds. Most of the lectures are given by specialist with an emphasis on current practice guidelines. One of the plus points is there are regularly scheduled board review clasess with the respective specialist. Atmosphere The work environment is very friendly. There is a good relationship between the faculty and the residents. The majority of the people are very approachable and take an interest in you. As I stated above, the residency allows for ample time with your family or for a social life. Conclusion Overall the program is excellent. It allows for a good mix of teaching/patient care while still allowing you to have a life. When you graduate from mercy, you will feel confident handling most aspects of Internal Medicine. You will also be very well prepared for the ABIM boards and have a very good chance of getting a fellowship. The majority of the people in my class who applied for a fellowship matched in a program in their field.

Medical Student (Interview) Overall Rating: 01-Dec- 2004 Teaching: Atmosphere: Research: Schedule The typical day at Mercy seems to be very similar to any other programs' inpatient hours (7am-4pm). The inpatient teams are made up of a resident, intern and med student. There is a night float resident team from Sun-Thurs. Teaching The residents seem very happy with the teaching that occurs. Mon-Wed-Fri there is attending teacing rounds. There is a MKSAP course taught by the teaching attendings which seems to well received. Also noon conferences and grand rounds. Your also given 1 month each year for scholarly activity, for which you can study for your boards, do research, or get your procedure experience. Atmosphere The residents all seem to get along very well. They say that most attendings are great and there are some (as anywhere) that are just ok. The hospital is very nice and they treat their residents well (lounge, pay, insurance, great support staff). If you are the type of person that cares about life during residency and/or has a spouse in the same profession and need flexibility this program is for you. You will be trained as an excellent internist without fellows all over the place. Most of the residents are either FMG's or DO's. Conclusion What stands out with this program is that if you are looking for a place to look forward to going to work everyday then this place is great. If you are looking for a caridiology fellowship at Harvard then reconsider. I plan to rank them very high.