Medical College of Wisconsin Affiliated Hospitals Orthopedic Surgery Residency Program
Programs 
Residency Programs Wisconsin Medical College of Wisconsin Affiliated Hospitals
Residency Programs Wisconsin Medical College of Wisconsin Affiliated Hospitals
Medical College of Wisconsin Affiliated Hospitals
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9.0 (5) |
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Contact Information
| City | Milwaukee |
| State/Province | Wisconsin |
| Website | http://www.mcw.edu/display/router.asp?DocID=157 |
Program Information
| Residents per class | 5 |
User reviews
Average user rating from: 5 user(s)
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MCW
| Overall rating: | 8.8 | |
| Staff Surgeons: | 9.0 | |
| Didactics/Teaching: | 8.0 | |
| Operating Experience: | 10.0 | |
| Clinical Experience: | 9.0 | |
| Research: | 7.0 | |
| Residents: | 10.0 | |
| Lifestyle: | 9.0 | |
| Location: | 8.0 | |
| Overall Experience: | 9.0 |
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Program Review
| Staff/Faculty/Chairman | Strength of the program. Dr. Schwab, the chair, is a great guy who is interested in seeing the residents do well and in improving the program. Dr. Schmeling, the PD, is an excellent resident advocate whom all the residents respect highly. Overall the staff here are excellent, and take teaching/education very seriously. The residents seemed very happy with them. |
| Didactics/Teaching | Good without being overbearing. Faculty are great about teaching residents. Conferences/lectures are fine. Probably a few less didactic sessions per week relative to other programs, but still sufficient. |
| Operating Experience | Outstanding. Residents here graduate very confident with their OR skills because they get a great amount of autonomy & independence. Being a level 1 trauma center for adult & peds means they get plenty of trauma, both blunt & penetrating. That it gets cold in winter, though, means you're not constantly being overwhelmed with it every year of residency. I rotated on the trauma service & with the exception of pelvic cases or otherwise big complex stuff the chiefs basically get to run their own rooms. PGY4s run the room alone for more straightforward cases. And this is all at the main hospital--the residents still get rotations at the VA where they operate alone a ton. Residents also get 10 week 4th and 5th year electives to round out their education as they see fit, which is cool. |
| Clinic Experience | Clinic is clinic. Fortunately it generally runs pretty smoothly. Usually about 2 days of clinic per week for each resident, it seemed, though on a busy service they'd still go back to the OR to help out after clinic was done. |
| Research Opportunities | Research is there and you can do plenty, but you might have to seek it out. It's not a place where there's tons of research in your face 24/7. It's not a big part of the program--only 1 month during intern year, I think. So, you can do it, but it's not a research-heavy residency. |
| Residents | Awesome bunch. Some of the finest residents I have worked with in any specialty at any location. One of the residents told me that he felt Dr. Schmeling (PD) to be an excellent judge of character & one who considers fit into the program to be critical. Consequently, the residents here have some of the best personalities you could hope for. 10+. |
| Lifestyle | There's something for everyone here. Downtown Milwaukee has the big-city stuff, the suburbs are quiet & peaceful. There's lots to in the city or in the outdoors. There are busy months & rotations, of course, but the chair stresses the importance of outside interests & all the residents seemed to have at least one or two non-medical things that they were able to do & enjoy. The residents are about 60:40 married +/- kids to single. |
| Location/Housing | See lifestyle. Housing here is very affordable to quite pricy based on where you want to live. It can also be high-density downtown to out in the country, if you want. I gave the location an "8" only because it does get pretty cold in winter. |
| Limitations | The goal of the program is to make you a well-rounded orthopod who could go straight into general practice. It does this well, while giving you the tools to pursue a more academic, specialty-focused career. That said, since it's not a research powerhouse and doesn't have a huge "name," if you want that to be a huge part of your career it may not be the best place for you. |
| Overall Rotation Experience/Conclusion | This is a fantastic program, especially if you want to do either private practice or work in a setting similar to MCW--academic and level-one trauma but not a research machine. I had a great time on my rotation. Residents get a great education and pretty much all get fellowships in what they want. |
Qualification
| I rotated as a medical student at this program | |
| Date of Rotation | 2009 |
Medical College of Wisconsin
| Overall rating: | 9.2 | |
| Staff Surgeons: | 9.0 | |
| Didactics/Teaching: | 8.0 | |
| Operating Experience: | 10.0 | |
| Clinical Experience: | 10.0 | |
| Research: | 8.0 | |
| Residents: | 10.0 | |
| Lifestyle: | 10.0 | |
| Location: | 9.0 | |
| Overall Experience: | 9.0 |
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Program Review
| Staff/Faculty/Chairman | With at least 2 staff in each subspecialty area (most of them young, energetic, and approachable), the staff @ MCW are a strength of the program. Our chairman knows the residents well, having personal interaction with each resident during rotations on his service. You would be hard pressed to find a more reasonable, grounded, fair-minded chairman. Our program director is a strong resident advocate who will go to bat for you if need be. He works as a site reviewer for the RRC and has guided our program well over the years, as evidenced by our recent 5 year re-accreditation. |
| Didactics/Teaching | We recently revamped our teaching conferences to include more structured, topic based lectures, with a set curriculum of topics to be addressed over a couple year cycle. This is intermixed with an appropriate amount of indications, M&M, and basic science lectures. Clinical teaching is very good. |
| Operating Experience | Operative volume and experience are the single biggest factor in my choosing MCW for residency. Our volume is a good bit above the national average, and the autonomy and independence is appropriate for the level of your training/ability. |
| Clinic Experience | We get enough clinical experience to learn solid diagnostic skills, treatment decision-making, post-op cares, and office/clinic management. Thankfully, this is not at the expense of operative experience. |
| Research Opportunities | Both clinical and benchtop research opportunities are available, with strong motion analysis labs for anyone interested. Staff accommodate resident directed research projects well, and often have a few projects of their own available. The one difficulty at our institution (probably not unique to MCW) is the IRB approval process, which can be arduous. |
| Residents | The program does an excellent job of selecting men and women of character, having good work ethics, strong moral/ethical standards, and a team focus. No-one is undermining anyone else for any reason, as this would not be tolerated by the resident body. |
| Lifestyle |
The work hours are not a problem, with our program director making certain that all rules are followed closely. Average work-hours for me this past year have been in the low to mid 60s. Home call is an advantage, as it allows time with family when things are slow. Granted, the summer trauma season can be busy, but it allows for good training and is manageable even on the worst nights. |
| Location/Housing | The combination of a relatively high salary with good benefits, and a comparatively low cost of living, makes our program very livable. Many of the residents can afford to own homes in the area, with their spouses able to stay home with children if desired. Milwaukee is a nice sized city for residency, with pro-sports teams and concert/theater events always available. Traffic is mild for a city of this size. |
| Limitations | There are very few limitations, and certainly no deficiencies, that I have experienced. |
| Overall Rotation Experience/Conclusion | As stated yearly by our chairman before every interview session, the goal of the program is to turn out well-rounded, competent, capable orthopaedic surgeons who can function comfortably as general orthopeadic surgeons. This is certainly accomplished, even though the majority of the residents graduating the program choose to do fellowships. I have been very happy with the training I have received, and am glad I chose MCW. |
Qualification
| I am a current resident of this program. | |
| Date of Rotation | 2009 |
Medical College of Wisconsin
| Overall rating: | 9.3 | |
| Staff Surgeons: | 9.0 | |
| Didactics/Teaching: | 8.0 | |
| Operating Experience: | 10.0 | |
| Clinical Experience: | 10.0 | |
| Research: | 8.0 | |
| Residents: | 10.0 | |
| Lifestyle: | 9.0 | |
| Location: | 10.0 | |
| Overall Experience: | 10.0 |
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Program Review
| Staff/Faculty/Chairman | This is certainly a program strength. We are an academic program with strong community affiliation. About 75% of time with academic faculty at academic centers (adult and pediatric), and 25% of time with community faculty at the VA and elective rotations. This relationship is a real plus as the community guys are also almost all fellowship trained. We currently have at least two academic faculty in each subspecialty. One foot and ankle faculty will be leaving soon, but there is more than enough experience with the remaining surgeon and community staff. Faculty allow for appropriate autonomy and have all been very approachable. We are supported whole-heartedly by our PD and Chairman. They are very open and responsive to suggestions about improving the program. Resident initiated change is often implemented. |
| Didactics/Teaching | Currently we have a weekly 3 hour Wed morning conference, which serves as our primary teaching conference/Grand Rounds time, and are generally well-attended. We also have a Friday morning fracture conference and case conference which lasts about 1.5 hours, each of which are attended by a faculty. We have a monthly Chairmen's conference which focuses on non-traditional topics such as leadership, contracts, ethics, etc. In addition to these conferences, each subspecialty generally has a weekly conference for the residents/students on that service. Journal Club is also monthly. We have typically just used an hour of our weekly conference time, but occasionally we will go out and do this as a group over dinner. |
| Operating Experience | I think that is difficult to imagine a better overall operative experience. We are given outstanding opportunity to operate. This is generally based on graduated autonomy. If you demonstrate that you are competent and capable, you can expect to be the primary surgeon on cases in your second year with staff or seniors assisting. This continues to progress appropriately throughout your residency. Our fourth and fifth year residents take back-up/senior call, and essentially come in to operate. Often they will have their own room on services. That being said, if you need a faculty to come in, they do so in a heartbeat. You won't be left over your head. |
| Clinic Experience | Generally a well-balanced experience. Almost all are speciality clinics. The exception is at the VA, which is more general orthopaedics. Usually about 2 days per week in clinic. This is where you really get to learn one of the most important aspects of operating--when and when not to do it. Critical thinking and decision-making are reinforced. Our ancillary staff are very friendly and helpful. |
| Research Opportunities | Pretty standard. We are required to submit one publishable quality research article and one case report for graduation. Almost all faculty are actively involved in research, and there are extensive opportunities. Anyone interested in doing a project can easily get it supported. |
| Residents | Probably one of our strongest assets. We are a pretty tight group. People who end up here are pretty genuine, and we tend to have each others backs. We all hang out and quite often have gatherings with all of our classes. Probably about 60% married right now, and our families tend to spend time together even when we're not around. Relative diverse for ortho, with three women in our program now. |
| Lifestyle | Generally our lifestyle is very good. We take home call. This is usually pretty nice, but can get busy. The most challenging year is the PGY2, when you are taking the most primary call at our trauma center. Worst case scenerio is that you are in house all night. The expectation is that if you have been in the hospital all night, you should alert the faculty with whom you are working, and leave by noon the following day. When this has happened, the faculty involved have been exceeding supportive and encouraged leaving, sometimes even earlier. If any resident is staying longer, they are doing so against our policies. This has been stressed repeatedly by our PD. Our busiest services are trauma and peds, but in general our work weeks average about 60-65 hours overall, even during your second year. After that it only gets better. As PGY4 and PGY5, you are taking back-up call, coming in only to operate. Many of us have children and we get a decent amount of time to spend with our families. Those of us who have known this program best, wanted to be here. We are happy here for a reason. |
| Location/Housing | All the amenities of a big city, with easy accessibility. You can get anywhere in about 15-20 min. Most of us own our own houses or condos. Very affordable. This is a very safe community and easy place to raise a family. If you are single, there is plenty to do around the city. |
| Limitations | Limited dedicated research time, but you can choose to do one of your PGY4 or PGY5 electives as a research elective. |
| Overall Rotation Experience/Conclusion | Extremely well-balanced program. Whether you want to go into general orthopaedics or subspecialty training, you will feel extremely confident in your surgical skills and decision-making capabilities when you leave this program. May not be as big a name, but training is second to none. |
Qualification
| I am a current resident of this program. | |
| Date of Rotation | 2008 |
MCW
| Overall rating: | 9.5 | |
| Staff Surgeons: | 10.0 | |
| Didactics/Teaching: | 9.0 | |
| Operating Experience: | 10.0 | |
| Clinical Experience: | 10.0 | |
| Research: | 8.0 | |
| Residents: | 10.0 | |
| Lifestyle: | 9.0 | |
| Location: | 9.0 | |
| Overall Experience: | 10.0 |
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Program Review
| Staff/Faculty/Chairman | The chairman is very approachable and well respected, this is not a program where the chairman barely knows any of the residents. The program director is actively involved in all facets of the program both looking for ways to improve it and keeping it compliant with RRC (he is an RRC site reviewer so this is emphasized). There are multiple faculty in each discipline, including tumor who are generally very approachable and enjoy teaching. |
| Didactics/Teaching | Each service has a weekly teaching conference for the residents on that service. There is a daily "checkout" in which the on-call junior resident presents all cases and consults from the previous night that is supervised by the trauma attendings. There are program wide conferences for 3 hours on wednesdays with resident rounds, grand rounds, basic science, and m & m conferences. There is also a program wide conference on Fridays for 1.5 hours with a fracture conference with the trauma attendings followed by a resident case based conference which changes discipline based on the week and supervising faculty. The conferences are led by the faculty of the particular subspecialty that is being covered. The conferences are interactive with residents and faculty contributing. |
| Operating Experience | Excellent. High volume, hands on experience. Doing appropriate level cases as a junior and senior. Good autonomy as described in previous review where you learn to make decisions in the OR and often run your own room on some services. In addition to rotations at MCW you also work with high volume fellowship trained surgeons from the community in the community rotations and at the VA hospital. |
| Clinic Experience | Well rounded with all subspecialties covered. Program director ensures that residents spend appropriate amount of time in clinic on each service, generally about 40% of day to day activities during the week (about 2 days on average). Overall more time is spent in the OR than the clinic but you spend enough time in clinic to know why you are operating. |
| Research Opportunities | Research opportunities are available and there is a graduation research requirement but research is not heavily emphasized in the program. Multiple Basic Science Faculty including Biomechanics professors at Marquette also on ortho faculty and are very helpful with basic science studies. |
| Residents | A strength of the program. Residents are a close knit group, a mix of married and single residents in the program that tend to work hard but also have fun together outside of work. |
| Lifestyle | Overall very reasonable work hours and expectations. The previous review questioning the work hours compliance in light of home call is unfounded. The opportunity to go home on call is welcomed by the residents, sure some nights you may be there all night, especially as an inexperienced 2, but if so you go home early the next day. Let me assure you, the program director who has been a program site reviewer for the RRC ensures compliance. Work hours have been logged in the past and averaged around 60 hours per week for the program. The home call is especially nice at children's (not too much going on at 3 AM usually) and in the winter when trauma slows a bit. |
| Location/Housing | Milwaukee is a nice city to live in. Fun downtown area along the lake with the Medical Center on the west side of the city in the near suburbs. You can live walking distance from the hospital and be in a nice neighborhood. Big enough to have plenty to do but still easy to get around and relatively inexpensive. |
| Overall Rotation Experience/Conclusion | It is one of only 2 adult level 1 trauma centers in the state, the Children's Hospital of WI is one of the busiest pediatric hospitals in the country and the only pediatric level 1 center in the state, a VA experience and community rotations. With multiple faculty in all fields and this breadth of resources that aren't shared between programs as they are in some larger urban areas MCW offers an excellent and extremely well rounded experience. |
Qualification
| I am an alumnus of this program. | |
| Date of Rotation | 02-07 |
MCW
| Overall rating: | 8.3 | |
| Staff Surgeons: | 9.0 | |
| Didactics/Teaching: | 7.0 | |
| Operating Experience: | 9.0 | |
| Clinical Experience: | 10.0 | |
| Research: | 9.0 | |
| Residents: | 10.0 | |
| Lifestyle: | 3.0 | |
| Location: | 9.0 | |
| Overall Experience: | 9.0 |
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Program Review
| Staff/Faculty/Chairman | Staff are in general great. All are well trained and at least two staff in each sub-specialty. Few demanding personalities, but that's everywhere. Most are friendly and enjoy teaching. Program director comes off a little harsh to most, but residents from the program really respect him. |
| Didactics/Teaching | High in quality, low in quantity. Conference twice weekly... Wednesday and Friday mornings. Not as much as I've seen elsewhere. |
| Operating Experience | Above average. Seniors pretty much have their own room on trauma... other services are similar. Plus, several rotations to work in the community. Seniors well-prepared for anything, most go on to fellowship. As one of two major academic institutions for the state, there are a fair number of interesting cases. |
| Clinic Experience | As good as clinic can be. The program is weighted towards operating, maybe 1 to 1.5 days of clinic a week. |
| Research Opportunities | Most are published, but not consistently big name journals or anything. Its available in any of the specialties, including some basic science stuff. |
| Residents | Very well rounded, agreable, group. Not a single sucker to be seen. Definitely one of the highlights of the program. More diverse than some programs. Most are married, but a few single ones in each class. |
| Lifestyle | 80 hours kind of problem, though its not advertised. Not sure if the program is in any trouble, but I've been told they work a LOT, especially second year-- it's "home call", but you're not likely to see your bed... and not likely to go home the next day until late. |
| Location/Housing | Milwaukee is a great place for residency...not too big where getting around is an issue, but there's plenty of interesting stuff to do with your spare time... Brewer's games, plenty of bars, concerts, shopping, skiing in winter, lake michigan in the summer. Housing is relatively cheap and Chicago and Madison are just an hour away. |
| Overall Rotation Experience/Conclusion | If the hours were a little more kind, it would be a perfect program. That said, it's only second year that's tough. Overall, a great place and one I will rank highly. |
Qualification
| I am a medical student at this school. | |
| Date of Rotation | Fall, 2007 |
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