Program Review
Staff / Faculty / Chairman
While the staff does not have as many big names as you might find at some programs, I came away very impressed by the caliber of attendings present at Geisinger. They are skilled surgeons and incredibly collegial both in and out of the hospital. I cannot imagine a more approachable group of mentors, which is really how they want to be portrayed. The residents have the attendings' cell phone numbers available and do not hesitate to call with questions or concerns regardless of the time. The attendings sponsor activities both in and out of the hospital, all in all an incredibly tight-knit group. They have all orthopaedic subspecialties covered in house in one location, and the new chairman is actively recruiting more staff.<br />
<br />
The new chairman has a different personality than many of the other attendings, but he brings with him a drive to get Geisinger more on the national map.
Didactics / Teaching
The best setup for didactics that I have seen, hands down. Protected learning time every morning until 8 am. This even includes the interns on other services. The first half of each morning is a chief-resident led discussion over readings from OKU or some other text, the second part is a more formal fracture conference, lecture given by attendings, residents, or anatomy dissection lab. They attribute their stellar OITE scores to their protected teaching time.
Operating Experience
Excellent. The residents work one on one with attendings for three month blocks, and really get a lot of autonomy in the operating room. The second and third year residents seemed very confident handling advanced cases. The chiefs graduate with close to 3000 cases logged.
Clinic Experience
You are only in clinic when your attending is, and since you're seeing patients you either have or will operate on it appears much more tolerable. Staff was eager to teach and answer questions.
Research Opportunities
A few of the residents seemed very involved in various research projects, but most were very happy that research was not being pushed down their throats. The consensus I got was that there were many resources in place (research assistants, statisticians, etc) for however deep you wanted to dive into those opportunities.
Residents
This was the biggest selling point to me. It seemed like a great group of guys, people that liked to hang out outside of the hospital and seemed to all genuinely love being where they were. They addressed concerns that they had moving to Danville and how their experiences were as they were from all over the country. They play intramural football, softball, basketball, etc together and definitely looked out for each other.
Lifestyle
As noted in the other review, q8 home call PGY2-5 is insane. Very busy level 1 trauma center with plenty of real orthopedic cases, but enough ancillary staff to make for minimal scutwork. You only round on your patients, and weekends you have no rounding responsibilities unless you're on call. Residents have money provided on their cards for meals.<br />
<br />
Excellent moonlighting opportunity PGY3-5 in community hospital. Overall residents seemed very happy with their lives.
Location / Housing
Most own their homes, all live within about a ten minute drive of the hospital. Lots of outdoor activities available in the area. <br />
<br />
Very small town, but has an encatchment area of a couple million people being fed into this trauma center. Great spot if you want a very busy hospital without living in a metropolitan area.
Limitations
Danville is probably love it or hate it, but Geisinger is certainly about as unique a setup as I can imagine. <br />
<br />
The staff is looking to add at least one more attending to do total joints.
Overall Rotation Experience / Conclusion
Great lifestyle, as good of an operating experience as one could ask for. Exposure to all aspects of orthopaedics in a small town in Pennsylvania.
