- Programs
- Residency Programs
- California - DO
- Riverside County Regional Medical Center (Osteopathic)
Riverside County Regional Medical Center (Osteopathic)
Hot
Updated
Contact Information
City
Moreno Valley
State/Province
California
Program Information
Residents per class
2
Riverside County Regional Medical Center (Osteopathic) Orthopedic Surgery Residency Program
User reviews
4 reviews
Overall rating
6.7
Staff Surgeons
7.0(4)
Didactics/Teaching
6.0(4)
Operating Experience
8.3(4)
Clinical Experience
9.0(4)
Research
3.8(4)
Residents
7.5(4)
Lifestyle
3.5(4)
Location
8.5(4)
Overall Experience
6.5(4)
Already have an account? Log in now or Create an account
Trauma, I&D....rinse repeat
(Updated: January 01, 2012)
Overall rating
6.1
Staff Surgeons
6.0
Didactics/Teaching
7.0
Operating Experience
6.0
Clinical Experience
9.0
Research
4.0
Residents
5.0
Lifestyle
4.0
Location
8.0
Overall Experience
6.0
Program Review
Staff / Faculty / Chairman
Like most places some of the docs were great, some not so much. They seemed to be the extremes of the spectrum with Dr. Faerber the PD oscillating between the two. Dr. Powers is a sports guy that used to be a QB for Ohio State. Some days I half expected him to crack open a beer and hand me one in the clinic he was such a nice stand-up guy. Dr. Caputo is also very nice but pretty quiet. Their joints guy is a prick and I watched and just stared down students and treated them like garbage. Dr. Faerber is a hot or cold guy that one second will praise you for an excellent read on x-ray and then chastise you for breathing too hard (maybe not that extreme!) The peds guy is very efficient and expects the best out of you and can be harsh at times but all in good fun.
Didactics / Teaching
Didactics were short but effective. Their residents seemed to be on top of each session and routinely score in the top percentiles of the OITE, though whether or not this is due to their own excellence or didactics is probably mixed. Wednesdays the peds guy shows up and really takes control of didactics and is a huge plus for the program. He offers insight into how to diagnose and treat various pathologies while making it fun at the same time (fun if you have thick skin.)
Operating Experience
I was there when it was apparently the "deadest its ever been" so OR time was pretty limited. Most surgeries 80% or more were either trauma or and I&D of some sort. I think I saw two ACL repairs when I was there. They operate everyday. Most students I have talked to said they worked 100+ hours as a student and was in the OR all day and night so my experience sounds like it was not the norm. Good peds experience throughout which is uncommon with other programs.
Clinic Experience
Wowzas a lot of clinic. 4 days a week of clinic where they see 80-120 patients a day. 50% speak spanish and of those probably 50% speak ONLY spanish. This made it difficult to do an H&P, although they had a phone interpreter that you could use its still impossible to do a provocative test and get "real time" results. I initially hated having to do so much clinic but learned that there were a lot of gaps in my knowledge that were filled in during clinic days. Also its the first time I felt like a real physician. You get a lot of autonomy as a student and see patients on your own on day one. By the end of the month you see patients, read the x-rays, chart your SOAP note then present to the attending or senior resident and they just sign the chart (county hospital.)
Research Opportunities
Most the residents have some sort of research going, one of the interns worked as a biomechanical engineer so I would be interested to see what sort of things he dreams up. Another resident has a project that involves multiple centers. I felt that research is becoming more of an emphasis with the peds guy (hate calling him the peds guy but cant remember his name). The attendings seems to be more open to participating and developing research projects with the residents.
Residents
A good mix of guys. It seemed to be the most malignant program I had been to with residents quick to poke fun and mock students if they missed a pimp question rather than identifying the gap in their reasoning and using it as a learning experience. I am from the midwest and many of the residents and attendings are from the coast so this may be why I viewed it as a more malignant program.
Lifestyle
As a student apparently it is not good but residents adhere to the hour restriction. The second year seems to be the worst with two of the residents rotating call in 12 hr shifts each week and 24hr call on the weekends. But honestly I would rather do that then doing primary call as a PGY3 or PGY4.
Location / Housing
Riverside itself is not the best area but its central location is great. 4hrs from Vegas or Pheonix, 1.5hrs from LA, 2 hrs from San Diego. The closest airport is 45 minutes away. Although CA felt the housing boom the cost of housing is still higher than in the midwest region.
Limitations
Their joints and sports are done at Kaiser so I cannot speak to those, though the residents say its a great experience and feel they are more experienced than the MD residents that rotate through there as well. Most of their hand, peds, or other is somehow associated with either trauma or infections.
Overall Rotation Experience / Conclusion
I absolutely hated this place my first week but it grew on me a lot after that. I think it was due to all the down time and rudeness of the OR staff. I think that anyone graduating from this program will have a "mini-fellowship" in trauma training and will have no problem handling trauma call at any center. Experience in the other "bread and butter" orthopedics seemed like it was limited.
Qualification
I rotated as a medical student at this program
Date of Rotation
2013
DW
Dustin Woyski
Top 10 Reviewer
Best operating experience you will find in the DO
(Updated: January 01, 2012)
Overall rating
8.0
Staff Surgeons
8.0
Didactics/Teaching
8.0
Operating Experience
10.0
Clinical Experience
10.0
Research
5.0
Residents
10.0
Lifestyle
3.0
Location
8.0
Overall Experience
10.0
Program Review
Staff / Faculty / Chairman
All great surgeons; stern but fair and really want the residents to be the best surgeons they can be. Chairman is Faerber, a very eccentric sports guy but sharp and responsible for a very high volume county hospital based program. You have to work hard to get on his good side. Caputo is vice chair and a renassance surgeon, hand and ue trained but does everything including pelvis. Others, Schlecter, top notch peds guys. Sherman and Yost, both phenomenal traumatologists. I never spent much time with the 2 to 3 spine guys but heard they were great, Steinman is very well known. Cruz is a great hand and ue surgeon. Cernyck is the foot and ankle guy, whom does the second highest volume of ankle replacements in California supposedly. Drinhaus and Ellis are the joints guys at county, both cool, opposite personalities from what saw, mellow and intense respectively. Powers is a great sports guy and former ASU and Ohio State quarterback.
Didactics / Teaching
Getting a lot better, daily topics for 45min were covered and there is an evening collaborative session with Loma Linda residents. Additionally, there is no shortage of workshops etc in the SoCal region. Usually for the week there was fracture conference, attending lecture, resident lectures, peds conference and then one other conference with night activities as well depending on the week. basically no shortage.
Operating Experience
Phenomenal, the best cases and most autonomy I saw anywhere both in the OR and the ER. You will graduate a great surgeon capable of whatever you desire.
Clinic Experience
Super high volume county hospital but you will see everything. Peds is at CHOC, a great children's hospital. In addition, joints, sports and foot and ankle are all at kaiser riverside which students students don't get exposed to but are supposedly excellent and high volume.
Research Opportunities
Getting much better, Schlecter the peds guys has brought this light years forward. I saw most of the residents writing publications that had top tier journal potential. Faerber is making a push and the future looks really bright for research. The setting is perfect and there is a lot of opportunities. Should be interesting as UCR ramps in its medical school.
Residents
Best group I saw anywhere I rotated. They work hard but they work hard together. The first 2 years are tough but then your last 3 you just operate and run clinic. Can't say enough about the entire group, both academically and surgical skill wise. In addition, they were all cool people to talk to.
Lifestyle
Poor but then again all surgical residents lifestyle is poor and you don't want a cake walk residency or you are not going to be a competent surgeon. soCal is not so bad because tons to do within an hour of the hospital and the weather is always good.
Location / Housing
Very affordable housing and you are within an hour of everything in SoCal. Definitely a lot better than most of the other DO Ortho programs in my opinion.....but I am a west coast guy so take that with a grain of salt.
Limitations
Hardworking program. No oncology rotation or elective but likely this will change in the near future.
Overall Rotation Experience / Conclusion
Excellent, this was my number 1 by far and not because it is going to be the chillest 5 years of my life but because it is going to be the hardest. However, i know I will be well trained. The fellowships the residents are getting speak for themselves.
Qualification
I am a current resident of this program.
Date of Rotation
Aug/sept 2011
JR
Justin Roth
#1 Reviewer
Not worth your time as a student
(Updated: January 30, 2013)
Overall rating
4.2
Staff Surgeons
5.0
Didactics/Teaching
1.0
Operating Experience
7.0
Clinical Experience
7.0
Research
1.0
Residents
5.0
Lifestyle
1.0
Location
10.0
Overall Experience
1.0
Program Review
Staff / Faculty / Chairman
Faculty seemed okay for the most part. The one good note is their trauma surgeon. He seemed like quite talented and very knowledgeable surgeon. Great teacher in the OR and clinic, and just fun to be able to hang out with.
Didactics / Teaching
As a student we were not allowed to see/be apart of these... a real red flag for me. If you won't show these to medical students that you are trying to get interested in your residency, then you must be very ashamed of these if these students are not allowed to attend.
Operating Experience
I would also say that at least 30-40% of the operations being performed are I&Ds. Another 30-40% of surgeries are trauma surgeries... not too many bread and butter surgeries going on here, you'll have to do a fellowship if you want to go into anything other than trauma.
Clinic Experience
See somewhere between 100-200 patients per day in the clinic, as a student this is where you will spend most of your time. I was called up and invited to do a rotation at this program. I thought that this was really a joke because there was anywhere from 10-20 medical students which meant that all of your time was spent standing around in the office just waiting in line to present the patient to the attending.
Research Opportunities
None that I saw.
Residents
Seem fairly competent, though compared to other residency where I would have no problem allowing the residents perform surgery on myself or family I definitely cannot say the same about this program... probably after a few years in practice or after fellowship I'd change my tune.
Lifestyle
Pretty poor. As a student you are expected to work every single day that you are there (7 days/weeks x however many weeks that your rotation is). It isn't much better for residents. The 80 hour work week means nothing here. This program will be in big trouble if the new work hour restrictions are ever enforced here.
Location / Housing
Great, it's Southern California and the housing market is poor so you can get and awesome deal.
Limitations
Don't have great didactics (they must be pretty ashamed of them if the med students don't get to see them), no lab for clinical skills, they have "saw bones" a couple times a month in lecture rooms but it seemed to be of limited utility to me.
Overall Rotation Experience / Conclusion
I hated this rotation. I was invited, they actually called and asked me to do this rotation... and during the 4 weeks that I was there no less than 10 other students where also there at anyone time, I met probably a total of 20-30 different medical students (and keep in mind they take a grand total of 3 residents/year), most of whom were invited for the rotation as well. I found that to be incredibly disrespectful, and a complete waste of my time. The number of medical students usually out numbered the total number of residents. Expect to be fighting over patients in the clinic and cases in the OR... Really not any fun at all. WARNING: If you are called and invited to do a rotation, don't go! I withdrew my application immediately upon leaving this rotation.
Qualification
I rotated as a medical student at this program
Date of Rotation
10/1/10-10/28/10
FJ
Frank Johnson
Top 100 Reviewer
riverside county
(Updated: January 01, 2012)
Overall rating
8.3
Staff Surgeons
9.0
Didactics/Teaching
8.0
Operating Experience
10.0
Clinical Experience
10.0
Research
5.0
Residents
10.0
Lifestyle
6.0
Location
8.0
Overall Experience
9.0
Program Review
Staff / Faculty / Chairman
Good mix of MDs and DOs. Faerber is the chair. Good sports guy with a temper. Can be hard on you but honestly wants you to learn. Caputo is a MD hand guy, very good, down to earth, smart. Nelson is awesome, but only comes in for 1week a month. He wrote the tolerences handbook and can do pretty much anything. Yost is a trauma guy, cool as hell and good. Schlechther is a former resident and peds subspecialty trained orthopod.
Didactics / Teaching
Was initially resident driven, but with the introduction of Schlechther as Director of Education didactics have become a very solid aspect of this program.
Operating Experience
Its county. Expect to be operating with some autonomy as PGY2
Clinic Experience
wide range of pathology, but is very trauma heavy. Also see a ton of pus cases from the private practices that don't want to deal with them.
Research Opportunities
Too busy operating and working in clinic to get anything serious done, but there is some research done there.
Residents
Down to earth yet driven men and women.
Lifestyle
Resident of the hospital.
Location / Housing
In sunny southern california....but in the desert.
Limitations
Not too many scopes at county. Recently added a contract with Kaiser hospitals to do 6 months of sports. They will work you to the ground.
Overall Rotation Experience / Conclusion
Solid place that will enable you to be a competent surgeon.
Qualification
I rotated as a medical student at this program
Date of Rotation
8/01/08
MM
Mitchell McDowell
Top 500 Reviewer
{{#ratings}}
{{title}}
{{#ownerCreatedBlock}}
{{/ownerCreatedBlock}}
{{#category}}
{{#editor}}
{{/editor}}
{{#user}}
{{/user}}
{{/ratings}}
-
{{#owner}}
-
{{#url}}
{{#avatarSrc}}
{{name}} {{/url}} {{^url}} {{#avatar}} {{& avatar}} {{/avatar}} {{name}} {{/url}} - {{/owner}} {{#created}}
- {{created}} {{/created}}
Category: {{category.title}}
{{/category}}
{{#fields}}
{{#showLabel}}
{{/fields}}
{{label}}:
{{/showLabel}}
{{& text}}
