Yes AMC is on Probation.

Originally, when the ACGME reviewed the site, there were several citations that were noted that needed to be corrected, so AMC was put on probation, the major ones:

1. Research - at the time of the review, on paper there was not a dedicated research director, even though the residents were required to put forth a publishable project yearly to be presented at a conference held annually at AMC. This deficiency has been corrected with the addition of the old research director who came back to AMC after leaving for a while. He is dedicated to the program, and has worked incredibly hard at bettering the program in many regards. AMC also has in the works a very nice research/training facility that should be open within a year or so. The resources for research at AMC are many: we have access to biomechanical labs at Georgia Tech, animal labs at Emory, and have access to a great research director and media person to assist us with out research projects and presentations. The program supports and encourages research, and will pay for you to attend conferences/meetings where your papers get published/accepted.

2. Trauma- AMC is a level 2 trauma center, but apparantly when reviewed it was suggested that a fellowship trained traumatologist be on staff because we were doing the volume of a level 1 trauma center. We get tons of blunt trauma, and the attendings at AMC were doing the acetabulums, etc. like they have been doing for years, but the ACGME recommended a fellowship trained traumatologist be on staff. I believe this was one of the biggest violations we had.
This has been addressed with the addition of our new program director/chairman Dr. Robert Harris, fellowship trained in trauma at UTSW, extensive military trauma experience, shock trauma/grady/miami.

3. Recent Chairman Change - this ALWAYS apparantly gets a program placed on probation, so I have heard. Our recent chair was replaced with Dr. Harris, and a manditory extension of our probation followed. Dr. Harris and the staff have worked hard at correcting the deficiencies on paper, and we should be off probation at our next review.


So in a nutshell, the research, staffing, and chairman issues have all been resolved, and improved upon. I think probation makes a program look at itself with intense scrutiny, and can only better a program. The internal review process has brought quite a few changes here at AMC, and the program remains a strong program where early operative experience and a large volume of cases are the cornerstones of the program.

I don't know all the specifics about AMC's probation, but I think MagicScrew cleared all of that up. However, I rotated at AMC and wanted to throw in my opinions. Overall, I was very impressed with the program and think the program is headed toward great things. Dr. Harris is an amazing surgeon and seems to already have a great relationship with the residents. The residents are doing more acetabulums than most anyone and will all be well trained in truama, even if it is only a level 2 center. The chairman is also putting forth a great deal of effort to improve all aspects of the program and bring in top surgeons. The research facility they are working on is going to be top notch too and the AMC ortho residents are going to have everything at their disposal once it is completed. Outside of AMC itself, the residents have great outside rotations in sports, hand, and peds too. All in all, I think it is an under-recognized program and in my mind, the top program in Atlanta.

I also know a bit about AMC, I rotated there as well. Just came across this site, thought I would add my 2 cents.

The attendings were always present at cases, the residents were very helpful, friendly, and got to do a lot of cases.

No pompousness there, no jerks, and attendings that seemed to care. the residents always took time to teach and seemed interested in my education as well. As second year residents about 3-5 months into their year, it was impressive to see their skills in the OR and in the ER/Trauma area compared to other 2nd years at programs I rotated at.

As a med student, I got to do quite a few tration pins, reductions, splinting etc. Much more than the other 3 programs I rotated at.

The thing that really stands out is the shear volume, with only 3 second year residents and 2 chiefs at the main hospital at a time, they were almost always in the OR. And this volume was not all trauma, lots of joints, scopes, etc. although I saw my share of percutaneous pelvic surgery and acetabulums. The second years see all the patients, at one time each of the 3 2nd years had 15-20 patients each !!
As a whole, after interviewing and rotating this year, I believe that Atlanta medical center is a very overlooked program in the South.
I spoke with the residents about their probationary status, and they spoke as magicscrew did as above.
I will not be ranking it No. 1 due to my wife's input on my rank list and here desire to live near her home, but I would be very happy to match there.