<p>DD is in med school and will be headed to rotations in the various fields and has to put in her priority list of hospitals that are affiliated with her program. I'm posting this in the parents section since I'm not so much looking for input on the medical/teaching aspects of these institutions, but on the safety, accessibility to public transportation, and other criteria that would be important to a student, but not evident by looking at the program descriptions she gets from her school. It's a given that her hours will not be just 9-5 and she should plan on being there sometimes before 6 and sometimes leave late at night.
Needless to say, her best source of info will be her contacts among her senior students, but if there's anything you can add based on your experience with these facilities or the surroundings, I'll pass it along:
1. Metropolitan Hospital around 96th st and 1st ave, NY.
2. Lennox Hill Hospital around 77th St, NY
3. St. Joseph's medical center in Paterson, NJ (primary) with sites in Ulster County NY, NY city based, Hoboken Hospital, and Kelly Army Hospital in West Point, NY
4. St. Vincent medical center in Bridgeport, CT
5. Richmond Univ medical center in Staten Island
6. Bronx Lebanon Hospital 1) Grand concourse and 2) Fulton division, Bronx
Thanks.</p>
<ol>
<li>I had a job offer at Metropolitan Hospital many years ago and the surrounding area was not good, but it is very possible and probable that the area has improved since then. Would she be commuting home alone late at night? </li>
<li>Lenox Hill Hospital is in a very nice section of Manhattan. This would be my top choice. </li>
<li>Paterson NJ is not a safe area during the day, let alone late at night. Ulster County is probably ok, and West Point is great. Hoboken is a very nice area of NJ where many young people live and it is close to Manhattan ( a few minutes). </li>
<li>Bronx Lebanon Hospital is probably ok during normal business hours. I would not want my daughter traveling at night especially alone. </li>
<li>I am not familiar with the others, although Bridgeport has some areas that are not safe ( my brother went to school there). </li>
</ol>
<p>Where is your daughter living during her rotations? Manhattan is busy during all hours of the day and night, and it is not unusual to see restaurants packed with people at 11:00 pm during the week. That being said, I personally would not take a subway alone during odd hours. The city is safe as long as you are careful. Transportation is great in Manhattan. I am not sure about Hoboken as many travel by ferry and I do not know the hours. I am sure there is a train. I would not travel at odd hours by train to hospitals in the Bronx. There are buses but I do not know the hours of operation. </p>
<p>NYC buses, including in the Bronx, run 24 hours a day.</p>
<p>The Bronx is a very big place, geographically (although not population-wise) bigger than Manhattan or Brooklyn, but with very big variations in safety and other quality-of-life issues.</p>
<p>Most people do not take the ferry to or from Hoboken. It is served by buses, railroad trains, and PATH (a kind of interstate subway system) to midtown and lower Manhattan.</p>
<p>Lenox Hill–note one N, not two–is in the middle of one of the more expensive areas of Manhattan. You can read about the neighborhood here. <a href=“Lenox Hill - Wikipedia”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenox_Hill</a>. It is known for its maternity ward catering to the extremely wealthy. You may remember that it’s where Beyonce gave birth and the hospital allowed Beyonce a lot of special privileges that I doubt many other hospitals would have complied with. <a href=“'Beyonce' rooms for affluent new moms at Lenox Hill Hospital are putting newborns at risk: nurses”>New York News - New York Daily News; It has some sort of affliation with Manhattan Eye Ear and Throat. I don’t know if your D could end up working there as well. Note the hospital’s site says it has “two campuses.” That’s also in a very wealthy, safe neighborhood.</p>
<p>The nearest subway is the 6, one of the safest, but most crowded lines in NYC. The 6 is a local train, which is less convenient. (You can switch to the express at 86 going uptown or 42nd going downtown. Technically, you can switch at 59th but since local and express trains run on different levels there, it doesn’t make sense to do so.) Here are directions. <a href=“http://www.lenoxhillhospital.org/patients.aspx?id=64#public”>http://www.lenoxhillhospital.org/patients.aspx?id=64#public</a> I wouldn’t worry about your D’s safety in the immediate neighborhood. My concern would be where she will be living and how hard it will be to commute. If the hospital is providing housing in the immediate neighborhood, no worries.If she has to find her own housing…well, I think it would be hard to afford housing in that neighborhood. </p>
<p>Metropolitan Hospital is a very different hospital serving a very different population. Translation: it’s a public hospital; Lenox Hill is a private one. Lenox Hill offers valet parking for patients; the idea would be laughable at Metropolitan. 96th and 1st is a perfectly safe neighborhood but it isn’t as wealthy as the one Lenox Hill is in. It’s more of a schlepp to the subway–there’s a reason the Second Avenue subway is being built. She might end up using the buses instead. (First Avenue buses run uptown; Second Avenue, downtown.) Here’s a link to directions. <a href=“Metropolitan Hospital - Patients & Visitors - Map & Directions”>http://www.nyc.gov/html/hhc/mhc/html/patients/map.shtml</a> I suspect that from a learning perspective, this would be a better place. The subway stop at 96th is also on the same line, In the afternoon, it is patrolled by volunteer parents, as this neighborhood has lots and lots of schools. Note that Mt. Sinai is located close by. </p>
<p>One or both of these hospitals may run shuttles for staff, especially if they provide housing. I’d check that too. In fact, I think that one of the most important factors will be if the hospital provides housing and, if so, where that housing is. </p>
<p>Hope that helps some. </p>
<p>Sorry about the misinformation about Hoboken- I guess I have been in the suburbs way too long! </p>
<p>I worked at Lenox Hill and Manhattan Eye Ear and Throat so if you have any questions I would be happy to answer them. </p>
<p>Lifelong new jerseyan, would not recommend Paterson AT ALL.</p>
<p>Bridgeport is not a city I’d want to live in (the hospital’s ER will see lots of drug overdoses and gunshot wounds), and while there are nice suburbs around it, they’re geared to families more than singles.</p>
<p>Thank you all; never realized so many of these hospitals were in unsafe neighborhoods. Twogirls, I don’t believe Manhattan Eye Ear and Throat one of the hospitals they’re connected with, but thanks for your offer if DD has any questions. As far as housing, I believe she said a few hospitals provide housing (Bridgeport, I think, was one of them, but after MommaJ’s comment, I’m not sure how good a place that would be), but for most the student is responsible. I believe many students swap housing as they move through different parts of their rotation.</p>
<p>The New York Times has been covering the heroin epidemic in… of all places, Bennington Vermont. A more peaceful and bucolic town could not be found in the Northeast. If your goal is to shelter your D from the reality of emergency medicine ANYWHERE in the world, you will find her professional options extremely limiting. Not just now- but forever. There will be drug overdoses in Bridgeport, Manhattan,Greenwich, and yes, even in gorgeous and peaceful Vermont.</p>
<p>I think you are asking all the wrong questions. Physicians don’t ordinarily choose their training based on the affluence of the surrounding neighborhood. And just for the record- there are very few places in New York City where your D would not be able to find safe transportation even on off hours. I have seen small groups (three or four young women) in scrubs returning home from a shift on virtually every subway line even late at night.</p>
<p>What someone in a white, gated community in a suburb might consider to be “an unsafe neighborhood” and what is actually unsafe in NYC is not going to align with actual crime statistics.</p>
<p>blossom, respectfully, I think you are being unfair. I didn’t get the impression that OP was trying to shelter his D from the realities of emergency room medicine. I think he was just worried about her safety traveling at weird hours. I live in NYC and have since the 1970s and there are some neighborhoods that I absolutely will not walk around in by myself late at night. (Neither Lenox Hill nor 96th and First is among them.) In terms of transportation, Lenox Hill Hospital is much more accessible to the subway than Metropolitan Hospital is. It is a schlepp from Lexington Avenue to First Ave, which is why suspect she might take the bus.</p>
<p>Reality is that D will make her own decision anyway. Dad will live with it.</p>