Jackson Park Hospital vs Mercy Hospital

Students of St. James School of Medicine have two hospitals in Chicago to to do their core rotations: Jackson Park Hospital or Mercy Hospital.  The hospitals are 15 minute drive from each other.  The question is which one will you choose.

Mercy Hospital

• It's near South Loop
• It's a clean hospital
• It's in a safer area
• It's hard to get A's
• They sponsor J1 visas for Canadian students
• They have multiple residencies.

Jackson Park Hospital (JPH)

• It's near 75th street
• It's not so clean hospital, but they are renovating
• It's in a dangerous area, Southside Chicago
• It's easy to get A's
• They do not sponsor any visas.
• They only have Family Medicine Residency

The problem with JPH is that while doing your core rotation, there isn't much guidance there.  It's more scut work for students than actually teaching.  No doubt you will learn hands on on so many various cases, but the guidance isn't there.  The residents are also not the happiest there.

Mercy hospital has proper teachers and guidance.  They provide a lot of support to students.  If you do rotations there than you can increase your chances in getting a residency there.  The same cannot be applied to JPH, they rarely give any students, who did rotations there, a residency position.

So in order to get the benefits of both, schedule all of your core rotations at JPH and conduct all of your electives at Mercy Hospital.  The rotations you did at JPH, if you are weak on that subject, then schedule it at Mercy.  By doing this you will not only get all A's in your core rotations but you will also learn with guidance.

I hope this helps.