Loyola Univ. Chicago

Loyola has a great program. The residents get a lot of autonomy especially as a 3rd and 5th year at the VA. The trauma service is busy being a level 1 trauma center. Sports is not too strong at the present time but one attending is coming back from a leave of abscence and another is slated to start soon. The residents are the coolest I"ve encountered yet. They are happy and seem confident in their operative skills. The chairman is a very well known hand surgeon who is dedicated to resident education. Loyola is located approx 10 miles outside of the city but is close enought that many residents live in the city. Overall, a great place to train.

everyone i have talked to liked the program, but they all agreed that you WILL be busy

that comment makes me laugh. I hear all the time on this board that Loyola is so busy and it's a level one trauma center oh my!

It is not that busy at all. In fact I ranked it high because it has such a good lifestyle. The call schedule is great, there is a 6 month research (golf) rotation 3rd year, and the ER is tiny for a level 1 center. In fact, on my rotation I asked guys why they came to Loyola and most of them said because it was a good program with great lifestyle. Other than this point I agree with everything above. I loved the program and did not get in. I was 235, AOA at a top-20 med school, did a rotation and still didn't match there. I think all of the chicago programs are extremely competitive because it is such a desirable city, so if you arent a star you should probably not get your heart set on Loyola just yet.

Somebody correct me here, but I interviewed at loyola and one of the attendings mentioned that the hospital is the busiest level 1 trauma center in the state of illinois.

Great program. great group of guys/girl. no fellows-another plus.

BoneJock-
It most likely is the busiest trauma center in Illinois. I was on the trauma service and frequently stayed past 9pm in the OR. Granted it was the summer and have heard it can be a lot lighter during the winter months. I've also rotated at Northwestern which is also Level 1 and doesn't see near the volume that Loyola does. The trauma service at Loyola is headed up by two attendings and there are usually 4 residents (one is an intern) and the volume is such that they divide into two teams each of which has plenty of cases to do. I'm not trying to make it sound like USC, but you will definitely be comfortable with trauma coming out of Loyola. Univ of Chicago is level 2. From what I heard, Rush gets very little, if any trauma. UIC, NW and Rush all spend time at Cook County which can get busy too.

I happen to be an Ortho intern at Loyola, so maybe I can help. Overall, the program is very solid and was my No. 1 pick. I have to say that the strengths are: 1) the chairman is a true resident advocate- at the beginning of this year he admonished the current residents for not taking their full "required vacation time" ; 2) all of the guys in the program (there was one female, but she left- still not sure why?) are great- there's not one I don't get along with; 3) the facilities are pretty good (ie. OR's, call rooms..); 4) rotation schedule is based on areas (ie. hand, spine, joints- the better way to learn vs. general services, I think); 5) Dr. Light is HUGE in hand; 6) trauma exposure is extensive- "if you can do trauma, you can do it all"; decent call schedule; 7) NO fellows to steal your cases;
Rendering Error in layout BBCode/Image: Layout 'BBCode/Image:default' Not Found. Please enable debug mode for more information.
Our residents get pretty much any fellowship they want 9) Intern year is not too bad- it will be even better next year after the 80 work week is implemented 10) GREAT City!
Weaknesses- 1) Sports, but this is changing. Two new sports guys just joined the staff and we're building a new outpt. surgery center; 2) No tumor- we do a course at UC (that's okay b/c not many people like tumor anyway)
As for the guy who said that our ER is small and we "surely can't get a lot of trauma"- you are very mistaken. We see a LOT of trauma and DO operate late quite often in the summer. Loyola IS the busiest L1 trauma center in the state. But most of it is blunt vs. Cook which gets the GSWs. Lots of high-speed polytraumas. The good part though is that the "Trauma Service" (ie. gen surg) manages most of your really sick pt's. You just take care of the bones until they are stable enough to go to the floor with isolated fx's. You will come out of Loyola knowing how to do trauma!
Some things are changing though b/c of the 80 hr week thing. The 6 mos block of your third year that used to be totally protected is no longer going to be a "golf" rotation. Knowbody knows for sure, but I suspect that we may have to take call 2X per week during that time to pick up the slack. Which is okay by me if it means my 2nd year won't kill me. By the way, in the current system, the second years get pretty beat-up on call because of our volume and the fact that you are 1st call for all ortho services, including a VA + Peds + trauma.
As far as matching here: 3 of the 4 interns are from outside med-schools and states, and NONE of us rotated here. I can't say how everyone else did, but I can tell you my Step I was over 240 and I was senior AOA. That does NOT mean you won't match here if you didn't happen to fill in the bubbles on the boards as well as I did- there's a LOT more to it than scores. I will say though, that Dr. Light has plans for this program to be recognized as one of the best in the future.
I know this is a lot of info, but if you have any more questions, feel free to ask. Hope this helped. By the way, I live in the city and commute out to Maywood everyday. 20 minutes. No problem.