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PGY4 Overall Rating: 29-Oct- 2003 Teaching: Atmosphere: Research: Schedule Now that we have a night float system, we stick strictly to the 80 hour work week. Our night float team is on from 6 pm to 6 am and has a day a week off. The intern and junior level residents get their required days off, but these days may be during the week. At the senior and chief level, weekend cross-cover leads to every other weekend off. The ancillary services at this hospital are excellent, so there is no need to draw labs, place foley catheters, etc. PA's help on several services minimizing scutwork. Teaching We have an interesting mix of faculty. We have several nationally know researchers. Most of our attendings have very busy practices so although we are a "community" hospital, our patient mix and acuity is akin to that of a major university hospital ... except we only have a CT and MIS fellowship, so the mahjor cases are done by residents. We have a full complement of conferences. My favorite is M&M. All services round daily with the attendings. Several of the services have regular formal teaching rounds as well. Atmosphere As a group, we get along well. We have good working realtionships with the other residencies at the hospital. Most of our attendings are easy to work with. Like any group of people, there are variations in personality and teaching styles. Our hospital is large and has a full complement of services. Residents have free parking in a gargage immediately next to the hospital. We also have a separate dining room for doctors only that is open for lunch (free, all you can eat buffet) during the week. We have a coupld of foreign medical graduates in our program -- we evaluate applicants on their abilities and performance, not where they were trained. I do have a life outside work. I have a woodshop at home and I brew my own beer. I'm also interested in astronomy and I took an astronomy course through a local university in the evenings when I was a third-year resident. My wife and I enjoy taking advantage of the numerous cultural opportunities in Pittsbugh (professional sports teams, opera, symphony, three art-house movie theaters, restaurants, etc). Conclusion This program offers an excellent clinical experience. Although we are not a university program, we are closely affiliated with Drexel and always have a full complements of students. I feel that we have the best of both worlds here: the advantages of a community hospital (nice facility, good perks, easy going program) with the advantages of a university program (nationally known faculty, tertiary care center, level I trauma, research...). Our program only has one resident a year go into "the lab." If you are gung ho on having a couple of years in the lab, this probably isn't the place for you. However, many of our residents are active researchers without going to the lab (you can read abstracts at our program's web site www.aghsurgery.com) and our program will send you to any meeting where you get something accepted. We don't have an upper level experience in pediatric surgery, which some people may view as a weakness, although we recently placed a resident into a pediatric surgery fellowship. We don't do liver transplants here, but we have a busy kidney and kidney-pancrease program. Our residents usually do well applying for fellowships or finding jobs (again, check our web site for details). I would be happy to come here again if I had to do it all over.

Medical Student Overall Rating: 11-Jun- 2002 Teaching: Atmosphere: Research: Schedule The typical day began around 4:45am to 5:00am on most services, except for vascular which is a very busy service (most places are). As a student, I carried about 5-7 patients at all times. The chief resident would come in between 550-600 and I, along with the other two interns, would round with him until about 645, after which we jotted down orders, ran to the cafetaria and made it to the OR by 7:10 or so. After that, it was pure operating until sign-outs. Med students had their primary responsibility in the OR, but the interns signed out at about 500-600 every day. A couple days during that month, I left the hospital after 800 but it wasn't a common occurence. Usually I was out by 700. At AGH, they operate like crazy. All day is busy in the OR. Weekends, you round one day, the other day off. If you are on call saturday, you come in saturday morning and leave after rounding on sunday. But three of the four chief residents do their best to let you have one day off per week and let you have one full weekend per month. Scutwork is NIL, especially on the floors. There are EXCELLENT ancillary services (phlebotomy team etc etc). The hospital also gives residents something like 50 meals per month, so I would occasionally see the residents grab 15 bottles of iced-tea and stick it in a bag before they ran off home. Call was Q4 for me, as well as the interns. I think it is Q3 for PGY4s and PGY3s. The chief resident is always on call for the service he is on (not a big deal if your chief of colorectal, but they get creamed on vascular). Some of the general services can be slow at times, but it is more than compensated for by the diversity of cases seen. One of the general services actually has thyroid surgeries scheduled quite often. Teaching Faculty are EXCELLENT. Vascular conference, Tumor Board, Basic Science conference, M&M, grand rounds, et al. All have large amounts of required "class participation". I would rather watch toothpaste than go to tumor board, but all the other conferences are AMAZING. I cant decide if M & M is meant to humiliate, motivate, or teach, but you do learn a lot. It's also a great way to motivate yourself to pay attention. Vascular conference is EXCELLENT and grand rounds are hit or miss. The attendings usually give good grand rounds lectures, but sometimes guest lecturers come and they arent so good (50/50). Faculty: Dr. Benkart and Healy (vascular). May ignore you, may teach you (As a student). but they teach the residents constantly Dr Medich and Celebrezze (Colorectal). Medich is intimidating in a good way. He's your friend and he wants you to get off your ass and learn. He is CONSTANTLY teaching. Celebrezze is a younger guy. He is friendly and isnt so hard on the students. Both Dr. C and Medich are Cleveland Clinic trained. Collela, Williams (general/vascular)- collela is a character. he's smooth in the OR, but is more a businessman than a teacher. Cobb, Atkinson (GENERAL) great teachers. Dr Cobb is always teaching, Dr Atkinson is the only surgeon in the WORLD with infinite patience. He never gets mad. Landrenou (Thoracic) This man LOVES medical students. He teaches all the time and gives residents A LOT of autonomy in the OR. Atmosphere Three out of four of the chiefs are fun to work with. cheif #1 is a really nice guy and you never feel ignored in the OR when you're there. he's doing laproscopic surg at columbia next year. Lets you do as much as possible in the OR. cheif #2 is a funny guy and is a pleasure to work with- matched in pediatric surg. Cheif #3 is a hard working surgeon. the most hardworking of them all. he teaches students but sometimes pimps to humiliate, but not all the time. Chef 4 could care less if you were there or not. he considers you an idiot regardless of what you do, but he knows his stuff. he is good at operating and he knows his pre/post-op care. Some of the prelims are morons. I could do/did a better job than them as a 3rd year. Stay away from the guy with a british accent. He scuts you out and tries to teach, but he teaches you stuff like "why do you think we give fluid to people with volume loss". He's an idiot. And one other prelim who wants to do ortho is an idiot. The rest are good. Comraderie is pretty good. Most of the interns get along with each other. They are all pretty friendly with each other. Some exceptions, but most are great. tHE ONLY reason i wouldnt go to AGH is that one of the categorical interns is incompetent. Because of the decline in surgery applicants, AGH had empty categorical spots so for 2 years, they had some scramblers. yes, i had a life. i went out at least once a week. i had time to read. i actually had more of a life than during medicine because you make great use of your free time when it is limited. AGH is a great physical environment. Conclusion This program is solid. There is ample opportunity to operate and ample teaching from attendings; after 5 years, you can be a badass in the OR here if YOU want to be. There is only a CT fellowship so all they cases go to the residents. if i had family in pittsburgh, this is where i would want to go.

Recent Residency Graduate Overall Rating: 10-Jan- 2002 Teaching: Atmosphere: Research: Schedule Typical days include the usual activities at nearly all programs. They include pre-rounding for the interns an junior residents, sign in, OR cases, attending rounds and sign-out at the end of the day. Weekdays also include 1 or 2 hours of conferences or lectures. Usually only 1 lecture per week. There are no scheduled meetings on the weekends! Workdays are generally 6 am to 6 pm weekdays and 7 am to 11 am weekends. Weekend days off vary by service and has improved since I graduated in June, 2000. Scutwork is minimal as it is a full service hospital with full ancillary support staff. Call days improve as one advances through the program. Teaching I don't think that you will find a program out there that will teach you how to do any operation any better. The quality of training I have received is far better than those at other programs with whom I have compared. I currently practice in a small community hospital. In some ways I am "overtrained". I perform all my operations on my own with LPN's assisting me. I have never found myself in the operating room or ICU or ward or ER where I was unsure of myself. There is nothing that you can't do in practice once you leave this program. I am able to offer care to the patients in my area that other hospitals in my area can't simply because of the training. As at any other program, not all faculty are equal in their abilities. Wherever you do train, remember to take the good qualities of each attending and create your own style combining what you have learned from everyone. Atmosphere When I began my residency I was a preliminary intern interested in orthopedics. During the first 6 months the entire atmosphere was so positive that I changed my focus to general surgery as long as I could stay at AGH. Residents work together to accomplish the teaching and patient care goals. I'd be kidding you if I told you that all residents liked all other residents without exception but the people are outstanding in character and ability and I would be happy to work with them in my own practice. As far as the attnding-resident relationships are concerned, I couldn't have been in a better situation. I still count a number of the faculty members as personal friends. I am able to call any number of faculty for counsel and advice even out of residency. Conclusion You will not find better training to go out and enter practice anywhere. If you want to spend your career doing research then this is not the program for you although research opportunities certainly exist. I absolutely felt fully prepared once I finished, able to take care of pilonidal abscesses to ruptured AAA to oncologic surgery and care. I would not hesitate to choose this program again. I would be more than happy to speak with anyone who had questions.

PGY5 Overall Rating: 29-Nov- 2001 Teaching: Atmosphere: Research: Schedule Typically, my day begins at 6AM and ends between 5-8PM, depending on the operating schedule. The interns and juniors arrive about 5AM to pre-round on the patients and leave about the same time as the seniors. We try to get people home earlier, especially if they are post call. The 4th and 5th year residents oversee the day to day function of their respective services, and operate, operate, and operate some more (400-500 cases during chief yr/ 1000-1100 cases total. The juniors really "run" the services. In addition to making sure the floor work gets done, and backing up the intern, the juniors become quite adept in critical care, as they are primarily responsible for those patients on their respective service. The interns are responsible for the floor patients. The amount of scut work in almost zero as there is 24 hour phlebotomy/IV team, transport, X-ray, etc. The nurses will place NG tubes, Foley caths, and remove central lines (if you ask nicely). Preoperative H&P's/ consents for same day surgery are obtained by nurse practitioners. This allows the interns and juniors to focus on being a physician, and not a taskmaster. Inhouse call is q3/4 for interns, q 4-6 for juniors and q3-5 for 4th yrs and 1-4 times per month for chiefs. Seniors and chiefs take at-home call every day. There is weekend cross coverage on selected services for the seniors and chiefs. Juniors/interns get about one day per week off. There are currently no fellows to dilute your operative experience. Teaching The dedication of the faculty to teaching is remarkable. Whether on floor rounds, in the O.R. or during conference the focus is almost always on resident education. Many are nationally and internationally reknown, and have published extensively. This of course helps with any future career aspirations, and is reflected in our residents' ability to obtain choice fellowships. This dedication to teaching is passed on to the residents who then pass their knowledge on to the juniors, interns and medical students. Our mandatory conferences are basic science, M&M, grand rounds, laparoscopic workshops and journal club; this is protected time. Other conferences include, vascular, tumor board, breast, trauma and trauma journal club. There is usually an interactive nature in these conferences, where residents and attendings exchange ideas and questions freely. Atmosphere I think the camaraderie among the residents is great. Even by the end of your intern year you become close with your peers, which lasts throughout the residency. Although we work hard, there is a strong sense of teamwork that pervades the entire residency. If someone is not up to speed, we all work hard (including attendings) to get that person over a particular obstacle. There is alot of good-natured joking among the residents and staff. Many of us and our families are involved in social activities with each other outside the hospital. We often have lunch with our faculty on an informal basis. And there is a lunch for the residents almost three times a week. Our coordinator, Sue arranges these lunches and is the glue that keeps us all together. By taking care of all the details and smoothing out the bumps in the road, Sue make our life as residents as productive, efficient and pleasant as possible. The work environment is clean, safe and fairly modern. The cafeteria serves good food for the most part, and is open about 18 hours a day. There is a separate physicians dining lounge away from patients and families open to the residents. Covered, secure parking is free and attached to the hospital. The general surgery residency office has just been remodeled and upgraded, and includes 5 new computers with DVD/CD writers, a laptop and digital camera. The seniors and chiefs have their own offices with computers as well. There are decent, individual call rooms for each person on call. Plans are underway to upgrade these facilitiesin the near future. Conclusion I think the clinical volume and breadth of cases, the attendings in the setting of a friendly atmosphere. The only drawback is research. However, in the last few years, support for research has improved dramatically, and several residents are published in journals and presented at national meetings. AGH has a long tradition of graduating well polished, clinically strong, operating surgeons. I feel completely prepared to face whatever challenges may be out there. Our program has had a great track record in placing its residents in the fellowships of their choice. I most certainly would choose this program again if given the chance. I would be happy to discuss the program with anyone needing more information.

Recent Graduate Overall Rating: 17-Oct- 2001 Teaching: Atmosphere: Research: Schedule The typical day at AGH is filled with a broad range of clinical experiences as well as didactic lectures. The scutwork is truly minimal compared to other programs across the country especially as I compare my experiences at AGH with graduates from other programs. When you leave this program, you will have developed an exceptional surgical decision ability as well as participated (and actually done the case) in a breadth of operations. After leaving AGH, you will not feel hesitated in performing any operation as an attending. Teaching The lectures are well supported by the staff and they actually insist that you attend. I've seen attendings round ON THEIR OWN in order to allow residents to go to lecture. By far the best teaching occurs in the operating room where the residents are taken through the surgical cases. Atmosphere One of the hallmarks of the program is the camaraderie among the residents. A working environment is promoted where the residents function as a team. I've seen chief residents take intern call in order to allow an intern time off when a new baby was born. Truly the staff and residents care for each other. Conclusion I spent 6 years at AGH including a year dedicated to basic science research. This total experience allowed me to have my choice of vascular fellowships when I left. It is without hesitation that I recommend this general surgery program. If I can be of any further assistance, please do not hesitate to call.