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PGY3 Overall Rating: 04-Nov- 2003 Teaching: Atmosphere: Research: Schedule Typical days vary from general medicine floor months to Tele to ICU and electives. We have both Ward attending system and Private attending system. This gives you the opportunity to experience and have the good/bad of both. Floor months start at 7 am for the interns rounding on thier patients. Seniors have morning report at 7:30. Work rounds are with all the residents and begin around 9am. Teaching rounds being are 10:30-11:45. Lunch and Noon lecture are from 12-1pm. After 1pm you have time to finish up work from the morning and take new admissions on the floor. Interns typically have about 8 patients on the general medicine floor. The General Medicine Floor has about 70-80 hours a week. Electives are much less time demanding with no weekends or night call. It leaves plenty of time to be aprty dogs at least once during the week with your fellow residents. Teaching The learning opportunities are far better than average. The attendings are mroe than willing to spend time teaching eager residents. Teaching rounds are with a designated faculty member and they are daily. We have noon conference daily, which is aimed at Board review. Grand Rounds is weekly, and attracts experts in their field to talk about up and coming medical topics. Few attendnings are excetpions to this rule. On average, I have nothing but good things to say about the teaching. Those who complain expect spoon fed teaching and would have the same complaints at any program. Atmosphere How much you enjoy work completely depends on the people with whom you work. The camaraderie among my peers is amazing. We go out frequently during the week and the weekend. Drug sponsored dinners are often a meeting/drinking/eating place after work. The atmosphere is light hearted and fun. We have about 10% foreign medical grads and they fit right in. It's nice to have a perspective of medicine that comes from a country with a different educational style and medical availiability. Conclusion The program's assets lie in it's educational opportunities. The in hospital experience is outstanding. Eager residents get more than their share of teaching and procedures. The out-patient experience completely prepares you for the real world. Those of my friends who are graduates of the program have raved about thier preparation by this program. The only downside is research opportunities- clinical research is there for those who seek it out, but if you're looking for basic science reaseach- apply elsewhere. My class has about 60% going into fellowships and 40% primary care/hospitalist. I would come here again if I had to choose.

Attending Overall Rating: 18-Jun- 2003 Teaching: Atmosphere: Research: Schedule I am a graduate of the IM residency at LGH and after two years attending at several other institutions, I am now an attending at LGH. I have had the opportunity to observe and teach residents from three Chicago residency programs and get to know their programs as well. The schedule at Lutheran General is reasonable; 8-4 weekdays, average amounts of call and weekends, very protected numbers of admits on a given call night and limits on total patient load. I did not work harder than my peers during their residencies. Teaching I have personally observed the residents whose poisonous typing graces some of the earlier reviews. When a resident abuses nurses and patients and is referred to anger management classes by the program director, scutwork.com becomes an outlet for their embarrassment, shame, and ill-will towards the program. The faculty have egos several levels lower than many University docs. Most are equally as intelligent, trained at U of C, Mayo, Michigan, Wash U - they just came to a place where good medicine could be practiced without having to discuss cases at the urinals. These people have lives outside of the hospital. On the floor, teaching occurs for 1 1/2 hrs per day by a designated teaching attending, but the good docs are in the hospital all day and are constantly teaching THOSE WHO ARE HUNGRY TO LEARN. Those that are hungry think the teaching is great because it augments their own reading and curiosity. We love teaching those residents. Those who expect IV infusions of knowledge or spoon feeding seldom read up on their own cases; it is obvious, and they are more likely to be ignored by the attendings and complain on sites such as this one. The electives were great also - Nephrology, Pulm, Rheum, Critical Care, ER, ID - all good electives with motivated, highly trained teachers. Noon conferences are good, I needed very little board studying to pass boards and I felt very comfortable stepping into an attending role with the knowledge base and skillset I acquired at LGH. Grand rounds are also excellent. Top notch studs speak and there is seldom a seat in the place. They had 100% IM board pass rate last year. I have no idea what an earlier writer was saying (sabotaging.) Atmosphere There was always camaraderie, we were all friends, and many of the attendings because of their in-check egos, were so approachable and willing to teach on the fly or even meet out for beers occasionally. The physical hospital and work environment is nice, with state of the art computer systems for all data (vitals I/O's labs xrays imaging results - everything) The percentage of foreign medical grads is just right - the diversity is at times refreshing and the ones accepted are of high quality with an occasional exception. I always had a life outside of work. Internship was stressful and a cramping of style but still reasonable. I always found time to go out and have fun. The program director appreciated the need for balance. He took us on high ropes courses and other camaradamie building exercises. Conclusion Standouts - a non-confrontational, friendly, RELATIVELY laid back program with above average teaching, excellent quality and variety of cases - tertiary care center pathology. Good outpatient medicine preparation with your own set of patients inherited from a graduating 3rd year- business cards, call in for messages, the real "I'm a doc" from day one. Drawbacks - you have to look for research opportunities but they are there if you want them. Not a ton of procedures but the hungry residents don't complain because they get theirs. Again, some residents expect a procedure to wait for them. Those with their coats on at 3:45 will complain they don't get enough. I felt extremely ready and prepared when I got out. I would certainly come her again if given the chance. My co residents matched fellowships in Heme-Onc at Northwestern, Iowa, Nephrology, ID, Critical Care at Rush, Cards at Tulane. The cream rises to the top. Feel free to contact me.

Recent Residency Graduate Overall Rating: 27-Oct- 2002 Teaching: Atmosphere: Research: Schedule typical floor day is pretty standard- usually 7 to 5 with calls q4-6. electives dont include weekends (or teaching often) Teaching teaching rounds range from good to useless with the average being "overkill". on electives, some teach well, others not at all- but there is a lack of interesting cases. Atmosphere the residents tend to be brought together by the antagonism they get from the administration- so camaraderie is good. attending-resident relationships vary but are not great overall. percentage of foreign medical graduates is about 15?. Conclusion Lets be honest, the program director ranges from indifferent to openly antagonistic toward the residents. His letters are innapropriately short, and they have no doubt been detrimental toward many residents attempts to secure fellowship positions. Many have gotten positions anyway thanks to the multitude of prominent specialists (who write nice, weighty letters) at LGH. Still, it sucks when your program director is working against you.

Recent Residency Graduate Overall Rating: 19-Sep- 2002 Teaching: Atmosphere: Research: Schedule Day is like previously described. Round from 7am to 9am on 3-11 patients. Work rounds with team from 9am-10am. Teaching rounds from 10:30am to noon. Take most of your admissions in the afternoon when not on call. Work rounds is where most of teaching gets done, so if your senior is not strong(several here), you really miss out. Teaching A few faculty members are interested in teaching but too many of them either don't know enough to teach or have no interest. As a third year I was poisoned by several incompetent, non-board-certified attendings who had no business having resident coverage. Yes, as previously stated, most attendings don't consult you when writing orders so it's possible to not learn a thing on many services. The telemetry floor is an expection-it was a good experience-credit Dr Shafter. The conferences are hit-and-miss, many speakers don't show. The hem-onc guys (from UofC)are real good, so 8-center and 8-east are also good learning months. The board review sessions are a joke. Morning report in Dr Fine's office is mediocre. Atmosphere Peers relationships are like any where, some good/some not so good. Many attendings have no interest in getting to know or help you; the ones who do aren't in control of the program. The hospital facility is really nice though and the ancillary staff (lab, rads, most nursing) are efficient. Conclusion Bottom line: GO SOMEWHERE ELSE. You really don't want the hassle the residency's administration gives out. Their is little help with fellowships, job-finding, or professional guidance. Instead you get harassment and intimidation. One wonders how such behavoir by the program's administrators is allowed to continue year after year after year. Minority residents are at particular risk. With new leadership it could be a great program.

Attending Overall Rating: 11-Sep- 2002 Teaching: Atmosphere: Research: Schedule As per Dr. Peabody above. There is no wheeling of patients to x-ray or doing your own blood draws. Procedures are there if you want them. ICU and telemetry months are busy, as to be expected. A tremendous amount of flexibility is allowed regarding trading calls to make a certain weekend available if needed. Teaching The teaching faculty includes both internists and sub-specialists. This variety of teaching faculty allows for learning to manage a patient from different viewpoints. Bedside teaching is the heart of the program at Lutheran General and is strongly encouraged by the program director and teaching faculty. I have now completed 9 weeks working in the "real world" and am thankful this was such an important part of my training at Lutheran General. Dealing with changes in clinical status, end of life issues, family issues, discharge planning and emergency situations occurs all day and everyday as an attending physician. I am aware that these are skills I will continue to develop, but Lutheran General prepared me with a basic understanding of how to provide excellent patient care. Atmosphere Social involvement is entirely up to the resident. I personally met some great friends whom I continue to spend time with after life at Lutheran General. Conclusion Lutheran General provided me with every opportunity I needed to advance beyond residency into status as an attending. While I cannot really comment on other programs, my opinion is stated above. As with any part of professional society, medicine, business, law, education, advancements are not made with a "why me?" attitude. Lutheran General can and will make the fellowship calls for you, write letters, help with your board study and provide support for residents who need that extra help. To that end I strongly disagree with some prior entries. If you have made it to residency, you are anywhere from 25 years old on up, presumably paying your own rent, driving a car etc. You know by now that if you want something you have to go and get it. You have to make that extra call, work the extra hours and make the extra contact, Lutheran General cannot do this for you. I encourage those who feel they were not given enough help to ask for it, because the faculty of the Lutheran General Internal Medicine Program want you to do well and will help. I also suggest you look to yourselves and ask what you can do, not "why didn't they do this for me?" I can assure you that through my brief exposure to the aggressive and sometimes harsh world of medicine, you will never find more support than when you were at Lutheran General. I encourage any medical student interested in either primary care or internal medicine subspecialty to spend a month at Lutheran General and evaluate for yourself.