Aiken Regional Medical Center

[hnaggarmd]

I just finished my ER rotation at Aiken and would recommend it to anyone.

First, if you sign up for EMED 5001 you're choices are MCG, Aiken, Tifton, Covington, Albany and Fort Gordon. You should expect an email from Susan Valle, the coordinator, about 2-3 weeks before the rotation starts. It's first come, first serve for signing up for a location.

At Aiken, there are 7 ER physicians, 18 beds plus 10 Express care beds. Express care doesn't open until 12 and closes at 12. So everything that comes in after those hours will be dealt with by the ER physicians. That means get ready for coughs, cold and flu-like symptoms.

You have to do 16 9-hour shifts. The EMS ride-along can count as one of your shifts. Shifts are either 7A-4P, 1-10P or 7p-4a. There are 4 different schedules, which you sign up for at orientation.

It takes about 30 minutes to drive there. You hop on Rt. 1N for 13 miles and take a left on University Parkway (or something like that, it's not marked). Look for the hospital sign and it's at an intersection with BP and Burger King. Make sure to follow the speed limit, it changes all the time from 45 to 55 and yes, police do patrol.

The staff, nursing and doctors are great at Aiken and enjoy having students there. You get to do and see a lot. You can pretty much get most of your required procedures in one day. You won't see too many traumas (they will go to MCG), but you will see colds, strokes, drunks, overdoses, appendicitis, back pain, MVA, MI, COPD/asthma exacerbation, etc. You get lots of opportunities to suture. You will stay busy and time goes by quickly for that reason.

Food is free!!!!

The doctors are Weddle, Yeh, Platte, James, Freedman, Staggs and Grant. Dr. Grant is a fast worker and can be hard to keep up with him. Platte and Weddle were my favorites, they are funny and will ask for your input. Dr. Yeh is in charge of students, but I didn't work with him much.

I would highly recommend this rotation site. If you are looking to hide and not do much, then this is NOT the place for you, go to MCG instead. It's a small enough ER that it's hard to go unnoticed. If the night shift is pretty dead, they are pretty good at letting you go home by 1AM.

[gkalv]

just finished in aiken. true, you can't hide here. dr. yeh is the student coordinator. make sure you go through him for any changes you want to make to your schedule. they are flexible but they've been taken advantage of in the past so make sure you get him to approve any moves you want to make.
your experience will vary greatly with which attendings you work with. in general, i felt like i wasn't really given "ownership" of patients and did more of taking the history and physical, then let the attending formulate the plan while i go and see the next patient. sometimes people would be discharged before i knew it.
just make sure you show up on time, work hard, always be willing to help out wherever/however and you'll do fine at this site. also, after seeing a patient, get your differential in mind and what tests to order (of course).
as for procedures, i did lots of lac sutures and abscess I&D's. they did very few pelvic exams at this site so you won't get that filled out on your procedure sheet.
overall, by this time you know what you want to do so don't be shy about saying it. they will try to tailor their teaching points and it will be more fun for you. i'm interested in ortho so many of the attendings would give me teaching points about different types of fractures and physical exam stuff related to ortho
also, some attendings told me what pts to see and others just let me pick up the charts as they came in so make sure you ask how they want to you work it
attendings:
dr. james - mostly follow him around. make sure to ask questions to show that you're paying attention and are interested
dr. weddle - pretty laid back, didn't pimp much. good at teaching
dr. platte - good amount of teaching. usually asked me what i thought was going on and what i wanted to do.
dr. jackson - pimped me nonstop the first night, then more laid back later. good teacher. wants you to learn and think and i liked working with him
dr. yeh - pretty much used me as a resource. asked me to go do express care sometimes to see mindless stuff. nice guy overall
dr. grant - good teaching and funny.
dr. friedman - had me shadow him sometimes and see people on my own other times. good mix of teaching and career advice in general

also, ems ride along and 911 center are now optional. i did neither. also, you will do about 14 shifts with some 8 and some 12 hr. food is still free at the cafeteria. dr. yeh is in charge of the evaluation but if you work with another attending more often just let dr. yeh know and that other attending can do your eval. also, the nurses are really nice so be good to them and they will help you out.

[abner3]

Hey Guys Men & Women Elite is a new health effort from Aiken Local Medical Facilities designed to help you, and ladies like you, get around the resources and sources that are necessary to keep yourself and your family members in great wellness.Thanks a lot.