Interested in Applying?
Apply through the Electronic Residency Application Service
Our NRMP code: 2077140C0
Class of 2010-2011 Interview Requirements
Current 4th year medical students attending an LCME accredited school will be offered an interview. All other LCME graduates will be evaluated on an individual basis.
For international graduates:
1. Good communication skills are required.
2. Scores of 84 or higher on USMLE step 1 and step 2 of the USMLE on your first attempt. Must pass step 2CS on your first attempt.
a. No interview will be offered if you failed step 1, 2, CS or 3. We prefer you pass CS on the first attempt.
b. We will accept 82 on step 1 if step 2 is over 90
3. Some recent primary care clinical experience required. US experience is preferred, not required.
4. We prefer recent medical school graduates (within the last 3 years).
5. Our institution will sponsor J1 visas and a limited number of H1 visas on a competitive basis
6. Applications accepted through ERAS only.
Please include your Dean's letter and three letters of recommendation from faculty who have worked with you in a clinical setting.
If you have research experience, a letter from your mentor would be helpful.
Please contact our office if you have questions.
Phone: (616) 391-3775
Weekdays: 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Interviewing Dates and Itinerary
We interview applicants on Tuesday and Wednesday. Your day will begin at 7:15 a.m. and end by 2:00 p.m. Dinner with residents & hotel accommodations the night before your interview will be provided.
7:15 a.m. |
|
|
7:30
a.m. |
Morning report at Saint Mary's Medical Center | |
|
8:00
a.m.
|
Interview with Dr. Mark Spoolstra, IM Program Director Interview with Dr. Nasir Khan, IM Associate Program Director |
|
|
9:00
a.m.
|
Tour St. Mary's Health Care and Lacks Cancer Center | |
|
10:30 a.m.
|
Tour Wege Center Residency Practice | |
|
11:00 a.m.
|
Tour Spectrum Health-Butterworth Campus and the Heart Center | |
|
12:00
p.m.
|
Lunch in the Spectrum Health-Butterworth Campus Cafeteria | |
GRMERC Eligibility & Selection Policy
FAQs
About CALL
- What is the call frequency?
Interns (PGY1) take traditional overnight call every 5th to every 6th night during those months they are on medicine rotations (11). In a year they will be scheduled for about 66 calls. Junior residents (PGY2) take call* every 7th night during their elective months (6) and every 5th night while on service months (4) such as wards, critical care, inpatient cardiology. Senior residents (PGY3) take call* every 11th night during their elective months (7) and every 5th night while on service months (2). *Due to the night float system, the calls that upper level residents take will be mixed between short call and long calls. In other words, a resident on wards taking Q5 call will have 3 long calls and 3 short calls in that month.
- What is the difference between short call and long call?
Our program utilizes a night float system of call which assigns residents to night admissions for the month. Night float are 12 hour shifts Sunday through Thursday, 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. the next morning. Short call bridges the day team to the night float team. Subsequently, short calls are scheduled Monday - Thursday, 4:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at which time the short call resident signs-out to the night float resident. Since there is no night float coverage until Sunday, 8 p.m. residents are scheduled for long call on Friday (overnight call - 15.5 hours), Saturday (overnight 24 hours) and Sunday (not overnight - 12 hours).
- Is there any form of back-up call?
Yes, but keep reading. Our back-up call is used SOLELY to cover on call housestaff who are too ill to work--thus the name ILLNESS call. Furthermore, to minimize the potential for abuse, the resident who took ill will make up the call of equal or greater value to the Illness call resident at a later time. We DO NOT employ daily jeopardy call or back-up call to cover admissions after the on call team has capped. Once capped, attendings are required to admit their patients. Residents who admit past their capping guidelines as outlined by RRC (residency review committee of the ACGME) are disciplined with extra call. Our program director takes the RRC guidelines seriously.
- Do house staff go home post call before noon?
Yes. Once an intern has seen and written notes on his/her patients and finished all other obligations (i.e. - teaching rounds, patient intervention such as an LP) their resident will send them home following an appropriate sign-out. In general our interns leave before noon and many before 10:30 a.m.
- Can house staff make call requests?
This is the true beauty of a call system that is not on a fixed schedule but rather variable schedule. All house staff may submit call requests before the 10th of the preceding month they would be scheduled for call. However, requests are a privilege and not a guarantee. Most requests will be honored if possible. Call requests are submitted via our web site.
- Are calls fixed (i.e. - every 5th night) or variable (average every 5th night)?
Variable. Our call schedules are random. In other words, a resident scheduled for 6 calls (Q5 call) will not be on call every fifth night but rather scheduled according to his/her call requests. Similarly, in order to create 2 "golden weekends", weekend call will be scheduled as a Friday/Sunday call and Saturday call. Call schedules which are fixed disrupt more than 2 weekends. See the sample schedule below. Resident #3 takes call Q3 and is either on call or post call for 3 of the 4 weekends; Resident #4 taking Q4, 3 of 4 weekends; Resident #5 taking Q5, 3 of 4 weekends.SMTWRFS34534,M35,M3,43,5434,53M3,45343,545Comparison of weekend days and weekends spent on call or post call.
Call
Weekend Days (8 total)
Weekends
(4 total)Variable (MSU-GR)
4
2
Q3 call (fixed)
6
4
Q4 call (fixed)
4
3
Q5 call (fixed)
3
3
Housestaff
- Are the majority of your house staff single or married?
Our program is composed of 50 medicine and med/peds residents. Approximately two-thirds of are married and one-half have children
- What schools do your resident's hail from?
49% of our housestaff are from LCME accredited medical schools (US & Canadian); 51% are from international medical schools. The schools our Internal Medicine and Medicine-Pediatrics housestaff represent are:
LCME Accredited Medical Schools
Chicago Colege of Osteopathic Medicine
Creighton University
Medical College of Wisconsin
Indiana University
Michigan State University - CHM
Michigan State University - COM
University of Alberta, Canada
University of Illinois
University of Kansas
University of Michigan
University of New Mexico
University of Texas
University of Western Ontario, Canada
Wayne State University
International Medical Schools
B.J. Medical College Ahmedabad, India
B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Nepal
Baqai Medical & Dental College, Pakistan
Coimbatore Medical College, India
Dayanand Medical College, India
De La Salle University, Philippines
Flinders University, Australia
Government Medical College Chandigar, India
JSS Medical College, India
Kakatiya Medical College, India
Kasturba Medical College, India
Kigezi International School of Medicine, Uganda
Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad University, India
Nishtar Medical College, Pakistan
Punjab Medical College, Pakistan
Rawalpindi Medical College, Pakistan
Sadar Patel Medical College, India
Saint George’s University
Sampurna Nand Medical College, India
Sri Ramachandra Medical College, India
Thanjuvur Medical College, India
University of the Philippines
University of Santo Tomas, Philippines - Where do your graduates go upon completion of their training?
Fellowships - 2001graduates
Gastroenterology - St. Louis University
Cardiology - Beaumont
Adolescent Medicine - Johns Hopkins University
Infectious Disease - University of Florida
Pulmonary / Critical Care - University of Pittsburgh
Allergy / Immunology - University of Cincinnati
Fellowships - 2002 graduates
Allergy and Immunology-Nassau University, NY
Geriatrics- University of Nebraska
Geriatrics-University of Michigan
Infectious Disease - Dartmouth
Rheumatology - Duke University
Fellowships - 2003 graduates
Pulmonary / Critical Care - Lexington, KY
Fellowships - 2004 graduates
Critical Care - Brown University
Fellowships - 2005 graduates
Gastroenterology - Chicago, IL
Cardiology - Lansing, MI
Geriatrics - Ann Arbor, MI
Fellowships - 2006 graduates
Infectious Disease - Royal Oak, MI
Pulmonary Critical Care, Columbia University
Hematology-Oncology, Cleveland Clinic
About the Program
- What are the outstanding or special features of the program?
We have a long-standing, strong community commitment to the education of medical residents in our community. The pledge signed by all medical staff members at Spectrum Health's two hospitals in Grand Rapids includes "I agree to participate in teaching assignments and to accept other responsibilities if required by my department."- Our attending physicians are very approachable and work in a cooperative atmosphere with our medical residents, treating them with appropriate respect.
- Our hospitals serve a regional patient population of approximately one million people who look to our hospitals for almost all of their medical care. This yields the broadest spectrum of diseases for educating our residents.
- Our Internal Medicine residents are able to interact with almost 250 other residents training in other medical fields. We believe that our community has the largest number of postgraduate physicians in training of any center that does not have a university hospital on site.
- All former program directors for our Internal Medicine residency have retained an active role in educating our residents.
- We can adjust our service sizes to meet the educational needs of our residents.
- Our community recently made a large commitment to medical research. The Van Andel Institute recently opened and the first of what could be over a hundred investigators are starting to work at this facility adjacent to our primary teaching hospital. We look forward to future collaboration with research institute.