Frequently Asked Questions

What’s unique about your program?: St. John offers an extremely supportive atmosphere. Attending physicians generously teach and answer questions while allowing residents the autonomy to practice medicine and learn procedures. This setting allows for trust to develop with valuable, personalized feedback.
Where do most residents live?: Many residents choose to live in Westlake near the hospital. Crocker Park is a popular destination for food, shopping, and entertainment in Westlake. Other residents choose to commute from more urban settings such as downtown Cleveland or Ohio City; this commute is approximately 15 minutes. These areas are popular with residents and they allow for walkable activities including professional sports, arts, and a wide variety of bars and restaurants.

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How are inpatient medicine rotations structured?: On our medicine ward rotations, we typically rotate through 3 weeks of day shifts and 1 week of night shifts. There are two teams on day shift, and each team will alternate between a short call day and long call day. Residents on short call shifts are responsible for taking admissions up until 2:30 p.m. and may leave once all work is completed, and long call shifts will stay until 6:30 p.m. Generally, interns get 1 day off per week and senior residents get 1-2 days per week off. There are daily attending rounds, in the morning followed by time to work on indirect patient care with protected didactic time from noon to 1 p.m.
How are subspecialty rotations structured?: The majority of our subspecialty rotations are a combination of morning inpatient consults and afternoon clinics. Some specialties such as rheumatology, endocrinology and geriatrics are only offered as an outpatient rotation. Cardiology and pulmonology are traditionally inpatient rotations but outpatient electives area available.
Which subspecialty rotations do you offer?: We currently offer cardiology, pulmonology, gastroenterology, rheumatology, neurology, endocrinology, nephrology, anesthesia, wound care, critical care, infectious disease, geriatrics and hematology/oncology.
What elective opportunities are available?: We offer electives in any subspecialty listed above. We also allow away elective rotations. Recent rotations have also included interventional radiology, outpatient cardiology, dermatology, allergy/immunology and family medicine.
Do you have dedicated education time?: Yes, 1200-1300 M-F is protected, education time for residents. During this hour, residents eat lunch while attending lecture, participating in resident forums, and discussing real cases with co-residents, teaching attendings, and specialist physicians.
How flexible is vacation time?: We offer 20 days of paid time off (PTO) per academic year that can be used for up to 5 days off per rotation.