I'm still getting questions about the places I've rotated, so rather than respond to personal PMs, I thought I'd post this to benefit all the future west coast otho hopefuls.
St. Mary's is a small (3 per year) community program in SF. They spend a third of their time at St. Mary's (relatively slow, very cushy private hospital with 4-7 elective cases each day in joints, sports, and spine with good teaching attendings, and the chairman), another third at Kaiser Oakland (very busy, dozens of cases a day, not as good of teaching, but you learn by doing), and the other third at Highland Oakland (crazy busy county hospital in the ghetto, very autonomous, only 2 part time attendings for the 4 residents - the residents run the show, including filling in the scheduling books). Between all 3 places you get a good education. I experienced to some degree, and have heard more recently about St. Mary's being financially strapped and the CEO is squezzing the ortho department to the point that I heard they may become an east bay program (this is a bit of a rumor, so if one of the current residents can clarify this it would be helpful). In may ways this would be a great thing, at least it would cut down on the commute across the bay bridge for lectures, etc., but at the same time would be detrimental since the best teaching is at St. Mary's. The residents take home call all five years. At St. Mary's that means you rarely go in, at the other places you can spend all night there, and with home call the 30 hour rule doesn't apply, so you might be there all day too. Research is almost non-existent, although all the resdients do complete something and they have 3 months set aside. They have some agreement with Stanford and usually go down there for whatever they end up doing. The residents there are awesome, very laid back and fun-loving. Being in/ around SF is awesome - I think it's one of the coolest cities in the world. The attendings are all nice, no malignancy, and very competant. Several attendings did resdiency/fellowships at big name places (HSS, Harvard, Kerlan-Jobe, etc.) and so the residents tend to get into great fellwoships if they want. In terms a competativeness, I think they may be a little less than the rest of the program in Cali, but not much. On the other hand I think they are much more selective in who they are looking for. If you get an interview there, you have a great shot of getting in (3 out of 10 that they interview get in), but rotating there isn't the most bang for your buck (only 5 of 15 rotators typically get interviews). Rotating there couldn't get easier, no call, no weekends, and still a decent learning experience.
There aren't many downsides. Reaserch isn't great, if you care about that. It's a community program, which to some people is a slight disadvantage, to others it's an advantage. They have a new chairman, the last one was there for 30 years, and I heard they would be on automatic probation because of it. They're old coordinator also left, and while she had some personality disorders, she was the mother that kept everything together. I have no idea what the new coordinator is like, she might be just as good, or better. In regard to probation, I heard from the old coordinator that the RRC has been giving them a hard time for years about not being affiliated with a university, and as a whole the program was the least stable of any I personally got to know.
I hope this helps.
St. Mary's is a small (3 per year) community program in SF. They spend a third of their time at St. Mary's (relatively slow, very cushy private hospital with 4-7 elective cases each day in joints, sports, and spine with good teaching attendings, and the chairman), another third at Kaiser Oakland (very busy, dozens of cases a day, not as good of teaching, but you learn by doing), and the other third at Highland Oakland (crazy busy county hospital in the ghetto, very autonomous, only 2 part time attendings for the 4 residents - the residents run the show, including filling in the scheduling books). Between all 3 places you get a good education. I experienced to some degree, and have heard more recently about St. Mary's being financially strapped and the CEO is squezzing the ortho department to the point that I heard they may become an east bay program (this is a bit of a rumor, so if one of the current residents can clarify this it would be helpful). In may ways this would be a great thing, at least it would cut down on the commute across the bay bridge for lectures, etc., but at the same time would be detrimental since the best teaching is at St. Mary's. The residents take home call all five years. At St. Mary's that means you rarely go in, at the other places you can spend all night there, and with home call the 30 hour rule doesn't apply, so you might be there all day too. Research is almost non-existent, although all the resdients do complete something and they have 3 months set aside. They have some agreement with Stanford and usually go down there for whatever they end up doing. The residents there are awesome, very laid back and fun-loving. Being in/ around SF is awesome - I think it's one of the coolest cities in the world. The attendings are all nice, no malignancy, and very competant. Several attendings did resdiency/fellowships at big name places (HSS, Harvard, Kerlan-Jobe, etc.) and so the residents tend to get into great fellwoships if they want. In terms a competativeness, I think they may be a little less than the rest of the program in Cali, but not much. On the other hand I think they are much more selective in who they are looking for. If you get an interview there, you have a great shot of getting in (3 out of 10 that they interview get in), but rotating there isn't the most bang for your buck (only 5 of 15 rotators typically get interviews). Rotating there couldn't get easier, no call, no weekends, and still a decent learning experience.
There aren't many downsides. Reaserch isn't great, if you care about that. It's a community program, which to some people is a slight disadvantage, to others it's an advantage. They have a new chairman, the last one was there for 30 years, and I heard they would be on automatic probation because of it. They're old coordinator also left, and while she had some personality disorders, she was the mother that kept everything together. I have no idea what the new coordinator is like, she might be just as good, or better. In regard to probation, I heard from the old coordinator that the RRC has been giving them a hard time for years about not being affiliated with a university, and as a whole the program was the least stable of any I personally got to know.
I hope this helps.
