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Intern Overall Rating: 31-Oct- 2005 Teaching: Atmosphere: Research: Schedule This is the best transitional program out there! I think my intern year is as much fun as my 4th year in med school. The hours are totally bearable. The 1st 2 months are a little different b/c everyone takes call and it's worse if you're on a floor month b/c you take more call, but it's still not horrible. The rest of the year, we take short call (5pm -9pm) once a weekday while on elective. It's not that bad, you do 2 admits and get to go home. And then while on the floors (3months total), you come in 6am or later (depending on whether you're on a private service vs ward), round until 8 or 9am, grab breakfast with your fellow residents, and round with attendings, then noon conference (which is usually interesting) and then admits or f/u on things on the floors, then sign out at 5pm. The 2 Unit months are a little tiring, but that's intrinsic to the unit. You learn a lot and always have help. The electives are awesome!! You can pick from anything... from nutrition which is an hour a day to anything else out there... it depends on how much you want to get out of it. I learned so much on my electives and never felt like i was overworked at all!! we have to do only 2 weeks of nightfloat and 1 month of ER. I never felt like i was left "to figure things out on my own." And there is no scut whatsoever!! Teaching The faculty are awesome!! They are so intelligent and want to teach. You can always ask them anything and not feel dumb. They don't intimidate you or try to pimp you in a negative way. The noon conferences are also good... there are some presentations given by fellow residents which makes it more interesting. And attendings usually are good presenters too. Conferences are never cancelled. Morning report is only when you're on elective, so you don't get too pressed for time in the mornings when on the floors. They are really really good! Attending always attend. They make it really educational and fun. Atmosphere I love my fellow interns!!! They make going to work so much fun. We usually go out once a week to a drug rep dinner or something. Especially b/c the Lehigh Valley area can be a bit of a change from being in a city, we really bond and become great friends. The area itself can be an adjustment, but most people are from the area and know what they are getting into and want to be here. But NYC and Philly are an hour+ away and so you can go whenever. And you actually have time to go and do it. Some of my friends in NYC don't get to enjoy it b/c they're working too much. I absolutely have a life outside... sometimes so much time that i don't know what to do with it... i've taken up so many new hobbies and done so many new things since being here. Conclusion The best aspects... your fellow residents, the department of medicine, the benefits (free food and parking), the beautiful hospital, great teaching and attendings, nice nurses and staff, no scut, having a life outside work, feeling competent and not afraid that you'll be left alone, and did i mention free paintball and spa day provided by the department?? They are so good to us and i can't imagine having to leave next year:-(

Intern Overall Rating: 11-Dec- 2003 Teaching: Atmosphere: Research: Schedule The previous entry is absolutely true. This program is a hidden treasure and every single one of us would come here again in an instant. I wanted to write about the changes that have occured in the program since that last entry was written (after the July 1, 2003 deadline). The changes are as follows: We now do 2 2-week blocks of night float, and have one less 2 week elective block. We have a short call system in place on floor services where 2 interns stay from 5-9, do admissions and take floor calls, then night float comes on from 9pm to 9am. Hours on floors are 6-8am, see your pts, 8-9am morning report, round with attending until noon, 12-1 noon conference, 1-5pm tie up loose ends and do admissions for your team if necessary. Call is once a week for short call, and you are always on one of the following shifts over the weekend: 12-10pm sat, 10p-8a sat-sun, or 12-10p sun. Floors are tiring but the ward medicine service, which you are on 1/3 months, has phenomenal teaching. Private teaching services are hit and miss for teaching, with the better private groups being covered more times per year than the average groups. It's all based on the feedback we give the program about the private attendings. ICU is awesome, it seemed less time intensive than floors! 7am-5p, q3 overnight but you always get out before noon post call (the attendings make it a point to round on your patients first) and the calls aren't that bad. Plus you get one day a week off but only have to stay until noon on weekends if you are not on call. So if you take your day off during the week, it's a major bonus! In the MICU, the census varies, from 5-14 patients. You usually have 2 med students on at all times. You also do one month in the ACU, acute cardiac unit. You usually carry around 4-5 patients. Same call schedule as MICU. Again, excellent teaching, get out at or before noon post-call. There are three interns in each unit per month, with one senior. Electives are what you make of them. You can choose easy, thirty minutes per day electives, or intense 8-6 electives, it's up to you. You can choose absolutely anything you want, from plastic surgery to nutrition to forensic pathology. There are no "required" surgery or peds or ob/gyn rotations, like at other programs. A change we voted on this year was to take 2 short floor calls per elective month, so that we only have to do one per week while on floors. We were doing no calls during electives and two short calls per week on floor months, but we felt that was too much and voted to change it. We voted on a Thursday and by the following Monday, the start of a new block, the change was implemented. The administration really wants us to be happy and makes the changes we ask for. You also have to do one month of ER, which comes out to be 18 12 hour shifts. The good thing is that you can take a vacation week while doing ER, and even though it only counts as 3 vacation days, you get a whole week off and 5 less shifts. The ER attendings are awesome teachers but it's a tough rotation because you are working for 12 hours straight. As a TY, you have to do a half day at clinic once a week. It is not continuity clinic, but rather walk-in, or sick visits. If you'd rather do continuity clinic, you can choose to do so. The only times you are excused are during unit months and vacation. You have to make up the times you miss due to night float. It's run pretty inefficiently, but my attending and clinic group is so great that I always end up having a great time no matter how draining some of the patients can be. It's actually fun! As far as the ancillary staff goes, I've been here for 6 months, and have never had to do an ABG, put in an IV, draw blood, anything of that nature. The ancillary staff is awesome and is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There's no scutwork. Teaching The teaching faculty are awesome, much better than anything I've seen in medical school in Philadelphia. We have noon conferences every day, grand rounds once a week, m and m twice a month, basic science twice a month, morning report (catered!) 3 times a week on floors, small group morning report twice a week on night float, and show and tell four times a year. Wednesday noon conferences are chief reports, which are usually fun, with events like medical jeopardy, where you can win books and stuff like that, and they are always catered. Atmosphere There are 8 TY spots here. Everyone is extremely cool. That was one of the things I really liked about Lehigh, versus other programs...everyone seems to enjoy each other's company, people are always willing to help out with covering a call, and the atmosphere tends to be light and humorous when it is appropriate. We get 5 weeks of vacation time: 2 weeks of regular vacation, one full week during Christmas or New Years (everyone got their first choice this year), one week for a "conference", and four personal days. People find it hard to use all of their vacation time. There are weekly drug-rep sponsored dinners at the most exclusive, expensive restaurants in town. Not to mention the free food we get from the gourmet cafeteria. Lehigh has hands down the best hospital cafeteria I've ever seen. Plus our mealcards work at the Starbuck's coffee cart in the hospital. We also get $1100 in "educational expenses" per year, which includes computers, printers, step 3, pda's, books, you name it. Each day there is the QOD, or question of the day. It's a MKSAP question, and the person who answers the most questions correctly out of their class (PGY-1, 2, or 3) each month wins $100 dollars towards their educational expenses fund. We get 3 free lab coats, lifebook computers while on floor services and night float (you can enter orders or look up patient's past medical records/imaging studies/labs dating back to 1990 from anywhere inside the hospital...very convenient/streamlines the admission process), the perks go on and on. They even pay us $40 an hour for taking extra calls in emergencies. Other programs just give you a nice "thanks". The salary is one of the highest in Pennsylvania, and I share a gorgeous two bed two bath brand new apartment (with fireplace, lavish soaking tub, clubhouse with hot tub/sauna/steam room/gym) 10 min away from the hospital for $500 a month, which is half of what I paid in Philly for a one bedroom. The actual hospital is a palace. They actually have a grand player piano next to the Starbuck's. The ACU looks like an expensive hotel, everything is brand new. The hospital has a lot of money and it shows. As far as FMG's go, there are none in the TY program. The IM program has about 15-20%. The quality of every senior resident in this program is excellent. They are bright, approachable, always willing to help, and know their stuff. Conclusion I would rate this program number one again in a heartbeat. I am so happy with it that I am actually writing this review post ICU call, if that tells you anything! Allentown as a location is actually a lot nicer than I had anticipated, although if you are looking to live in a big city, this is probably not the place for you. Allentown is the 3rd largest city in Pennsylvania, with excellent restaurants, and a fun bar scene. You're only 30 minutes away from the King of Prussia Mall (best mall in the country). Dorney Park is 5 minutes away, with tons of roller-coasters and 18 waterslides. I've gone down to Philly and up to New York (there's a bus that goes to NYC for $15 each way!) numerous times and it's not too bad of a drive either way. There are beautiful parks here for running, walking, etc, and you're only 30 minutes away from the Poconos. I interviewed at a lot of TY's, and this place is a diamond in the rough. I never thought I could be this happy as an intern.

Intern Overall Rating: 18-Dec- 2002 Teaching: Atmosphere: Research: Schedule The rotation schedule is currently comprised of 3 months of IM, 1 month ICU, 1 month ACU (acute coronary), 1 month ED, 2 weeks night float, 6.5 months of elective for a total of 13 4-week blocks. On IM, depending on your census, you can start writing notes at 6:30-7, go to morning report from 7:30-8:30, continue seeing patients until attending rounds @ 10:00. Your day can end anywhere from 2-6, but signout to the call team is always @ 5pm in the cafeteria. Call is about q5 on IM, q3 on ICU&ACU, and 3 times/month on elective. On call you do admissions from 5 until 10 when night float comes on, after which you do cross coverage while sleeping. I have heard that next year they are switching to a system in which you do 2 extra weeks of night float, but do no call during IM or elective. The calls here have been easy compared to my subI as a med student in Philadelphia. The main reason is that there is absolutely no scutwork at LVH. There are techs 24 hours a day to do blood draws, x-ray transport, IVs, etc. Anesthesia and respiratory therapy are always around to do intubations and ABG's. Nurses are deferential with following residents' orders, and their level of professionalism is magnitudes higher than I experienced from the nurses in Philadlphia. We have discharge planners that work quick to get patients out of the hospital when they don't need to be there. As interns we never have to do any social work of any kind. Teaching There are 8 attendings that rotate through the ward service, of which I'd say 4 are phenomenal teachers, 3 are very good, and 1 that is a nice person but is painfully slow. One of the attendings (Dr. Mishriki) can practically recite Sapira's Bedside Diagnosis verbatim, and I have to say is one of the nicest and most effective clinical teachers I've ever met. When you're on a private service (1-2 months out of the 3), teaching can be hit or miss, but the workload is lighter than on wards. Morning reports are case driven and therefore generally informative and pertinent, and I have not witnessed or experienced any malignant pimping. There is a required noon conference every day which the attendings know to let you out for (unless you're on ACU/ICU). I would estimate that 75% of them are worthwhile. Atmosphere As residents we hang out together quite a bit, expecially at drug rep dinners. I'd say half of us are married and half single. We have so many elective months that I have plenty of time to go out, exercise, visit friends in NYC and Philly, etc. Residents here are generally happy, and the transitional interns especially so. We have a sweet deal and we know it. The hospital is very modern and clean. We carry handheld Lifebook computers which have continuous access to the hospital patient database and the internet. I can write orders and check labs over the computer while sitting in morning report or noon conference. We have free access to UptoDate, MDConsult, Medline, and myriad other electronic resources. The housestaff pay @ LVH is among the highest in Pennsylvania, plus the cost of living is low. Unlike other hospitals I've rotated at, the residents at LVH park for free right next to the hospital, and the nurses have to park in the remote lots. There are no FMG's in the transitional year program. Perhaps 15% of the IM residents are FMG's. Conclusion LVH is a tertiary care center that has virtually all of the acuity and pathology seen at major urban centers, but without the scutwork. Cardiology, critical care, and trauma are particularly strong and busy services. The only services I've noticed that are lacking here are bone marrow and liver transplants. The main drawback is probably the outpatient clinic, where we spend one afternoon a week (except when on ACU&ICU). The clinic is not run efficiently and there is a significant contingent of unsavory and manipulative patients. I am very happy that I matched here, and I would rank LVH first again in an instant.