ER at Cook County

[dknykid1980]

Hi everyone-

I'm an M1. I'm currently doing my introduction to patient care course in the ER and I'm loving it. I'm originally from Chicago and was just curious to know how competitive it is to get into a ER program in the chicagoland are.....specifically at Cook County.

Thanks

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[deleted6669]

cook county is a pgy 2-4 program if i'm not mistaken, so you have to do an internship first. good program on all accounts.

 

[Annette]

dknykid, check out www.saem.org

It is a web site that will give you lots of information about EM residency. Also, check with your school to see if there is an EM interest group.

 

[Doc_Halo]

The programs at Cook County Hospital are mostly non-competitive, w/ tons of FMG's in them (i.e. Int Med). The ER program is an exception to the rule in that it is pretty competitive. The Univ of Chicago is pretty high quality & one of the oldest programs in the country. It too is pretty competitive.

 

[jawurheemd]

I agree that the Univ. of Chicago ER program is "pretty high quality"

Don't know much about Cook County, but I do know that they will be moving into the new hospital any day now.

-James

 

[soluentgreen]

Cook county, together with the rest of the Chicago programs are pretty competitive. I did a month at U of CHicago and it is an excellent training program with a quite progressive mentality in terms of working the residents- 8 hour shifts, and I think the monthly # hovers at 17 -20(?), excellent ancillary staff, and required exposure to the UCAN aeromedical training. It is only Peds level I trauma, the adult trauma they downscaled themselves to a Level II to control the volume, but you will get plenty of adult trauma at their affiliates. Cook county, however, lacks a lot of the ancillary support and you will do a lot more running around.

 

[Pinky]

I've heard that the Advocate Christ Program and the Univ of Illinois Program are two of the better programs in Chicago.

 

[William]

There are several good programs in Chicago, you really cant go wrong training in Illinois.

The only problem is you graduate and want to stay in CHicago ( a great city) and the job market is too tight.

With 50 -or so graduates each year there just aren't jobs for everyone.

 

[tonem]

I just read in the LA Times that they closed the doors on the old hospital and opened the new one yesterday. That has to push them up even higher in desireability. High volume, high acuity, lots of pathology and a brand spanking new state of the art facility.

 

[Pinky]

But you still have the same government employees and ancillary staff working there. As an attending who used to work at Cook County once told me, "It's like applying shoe shine on a piece of s**t."

 

[Sheerstress]

Overall, Cook County is a good program - It's got several prominent faculty (Drs. Simon, Schaider and Green are well known and all trained under Rosen), a brand new facility, and an inner city population where you will see just about any kind of pathology.

Drawbacks have been a somewhat awkward system for ordering tests and labs, overcrowding with patients lining the halls in stretchers, and a trauma department that is separate from the main ED, limiting the residents' day-to-day involvement [note: I don't know if any of these things have changed with the new hospital].