Relocating to Philly--Recommended Hospitals?

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Hey there Pennsylvania Nurses! :p I'm sick and tired of Cleveland, Ohio. I need a change. I really want to move to Philadelphia this coming February, as I've loved the vibe of the city when I've been there before, and I just gotta get out of crummy Cleveland, Ohio!!!

I looked at other places around the country, and Philly seems to have the right mix of big city with a community-centered feel, and is in close proximity to NYC & DC (weekend roadtrip warrior here! :) ). PLUS I read there's a bazillion hospitals in the area, which is of course good in our line of work.

Anyway, I was wondering if you all who have ever worked in the area or have friends in the area would be willing to recommend some great places to work. My background: BSN in 2002, worked 3 years in Northeast Ohio's busiest ED/Level 1 Trauma unit (county hospital), have been working the past few months in our new ED Observation/Short Stay Unit. I'd definitely like to stay in ER (sometime adrenaline junkie as well :uhoh3: ), but I'd also be into Tele/CCU or maybe trying some SICU or MICU for a while too if I felt really good about it somewhere.

First off, I was wondering if there's a county (i.e. public) hospital in Philadelphia? Not that I want a repeat of where I'm at now, but the benefits always seem to be better in public facilities. Also, which hospitals are Level 1 Trauma registered in the area?

I've been looking at Hospital of UPenn, Pennsylvania Hospital, and Einstein. Any input?

I'd also be VERY open to sharing any REFERRAL BONUS you might be able to provide!! :balloons:

Thanks for your insight, and see you guys soon!! :)

~Scott

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I seem to recall a county hospital when I was a kid, but it's long gone.

There are several Level I traumas here, HUP, Temple, Hahnemann, Jefferson, Frankford-Torresdale and Einstein. And that's just in the city limits.

Now, Hahnemann is a Tenet hospital and having both worked for Tenet and at Hahnemann I wouldn't work staff there.

HUP is always making "Best of" list and they are trying to get magnet, so they are really kissing up the the nurses. It is probably the busiest trauma center in town too.And, don't quote me on this, I think they have a float postion for ED, CCU, SICU, MICU that pays $$.

I hear mixed things about Jeff and Einstien. Maybe someone else has an opinion.

If you are looking for a community centered hospital, I would look into Methodist. It is in South Philadelphia and very community oriented. They remodeled their ED last year and their ICU this year.

HTH!

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hello

frankford-torresdale hospital is not a level 1 trauma - it's level 2. that being said it's a good mix of being busy and being a community hospital. also, housing in the area of the hospital is affordable to some degree. if you want pure action, then you want downtown. this would be jefferson, univ of penn or hahnemann hospitals. if you want downtown, but community style hospital try pennsylvania hospital. this was the original hospital founded by benj. franklin. if you want culture, action, and a thrill included in your commute to work, then einstien or temple are good choices. both are in the 'hood and both are trauma 1. they are good hospitals with decent reputations. other hospitals include (mostly all neighborhood types - please excuse my spelling):

nazerth, episcipol, newman medical, methodist, germantown, roxbourgh, jeanes, fox chase cancer, frankford (original, just called frankford-frankford), childrens, st. chris', veterns, and shriners.

there is no 'public' hospital anymore. there used to be penn general, but that closed down years ago.

i hope this helps - i'm just a nursing student, but i am a life long resident of the city of philadelphia.

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I didn't see St. Agnes in south Philly on your list, is it still there?

I haven't lived in Philadelphia in years but I remember that hospital being a nice place to work.

I remember having to change trains at the Einstein station (Broad & Olney) on my daily commutes, that is one ROUGH neighborhood, gotta watch your back there.

I also worked agency at some evil Tenet hospital out in the northern suburbs, can't remember the name of it now.

My old co-workers always warned me not to work for Frankford Torresdale, apparantly the nurses are so horrible that they are even mean to the doctors there in addition to any new staff that comes along but this could be outdated info by now.

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Hey, thanks to everyone for your input! I'm busy investigating a few of the places that you mentioned... :nurse: I'm sorta thinking it'll be good to finally be at a private hospital. The pay seems a lot better than my measly salary as a "ghetto nurse" lol. I've also been looking at a few staffing agencies for the area, some are offering some pretty handsome sign-on bonuses, salaries, and even relocation allowances. Do you guys know of any really *amazing* sign-on bonuses in the area? I'd love to hear if you do...

:offtopic: What's your opinion on the best area in Philadelphia to live? I'm definitely more a city guy. Which neighborhoods are good and fairly affordable to live? I've been looking at the University City area, since it seems fairly cheap, although I did the college thing, and I don't know if I'd really want to be surrounded by 24-7 intoxicated frat parties (which is sort of what I envision when I think of anything called 'university city') :angryfire ... I pay $685/month now for a 2-bedroom in a beautiful old apartment building with hardwood floors & crown moulding, so I'd kinda want something in that range or maybe a little higher like 750-ish... Anyway, any ideas would be grrrrrrreeeeeeeatly appreciated!!! Thanks for all the Brotherly Love! :rolleyes:

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Specializes in Oncology/Haemetology/HIV.

I have worked several assignments there.

HUP is good facility but it has lots of attitude. I saw several nurses (young/old/new) get "eaten" there. They have prestige, they know it and the pay was lower there.

St. Agnes, I believe got bought and integrated into a long term care situation. You could ask NRSKaren as she would have info.

MCP was a Tenet hospital that had a strike and serious labor issues. It truly earned the strike as they had a lousy HR department, mandated overtime and didn't want to limit mandation nor pay appropriately for mandated OT.

Hahnemann was bought by Tenet and treats travelers as garbage. They couldn't get anyone to work on the M/S floor...so it deliberated overstaffed the Tele units, and as travelers were First Float...they were getting floated all over creation from the tele unit. They tried to close/downsize the trauma care due to high malpractice costs but I do not know whether they were permitted to or not.

Thomas Jefferson...,wonderful staff, high pay but really scary ratios (and scary patients). I guarantee that their ER would probably be really interesting. I did 6 monthes there because the manager of the unit was so great and the staff was cool. Watching the drug dealers doing business on the corner across the street can be bit disconcerting but nobody ever messes with the TJUH nurses. (they know that we may be starting their IV after a GSW). Supposedly, the ratios have improved as they are attempting Magnet status. They couldn't have gotten worse.

Two years ago, the per diem rates for Einstein and TJUH were upwards of $55.00.

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that is a great question! there a lots of great places to live.

before we talk about where in the city you will live, keep two things in mind. philly has, i believe, the highest wage tax and car insurance in the country! the first 3+% of you your paycheck goes back to the city, so deduct that. second, i dont know what kind of car you drive but if it is less than 5 years old you will need full coverage. my guess is it will cost you $2200-$2700 a year depending on your age. if your current auto insurance policy is more than that call erie insurane or aig and get a quote - they are very fairly priced in the city. i have 2 six year old cars and i pay $2100 a year for both with full coverage (i own my home, am married, and been insured with erie for 3+ years)

okay, now where to live. university city is a mixed bag - you have every type of living style out there: ghetto, college, professional. the higher the number on the address, the closer to the ghetto, the lower the number to closer to the college. 34th street is hup and penn's campus - 52nd street is business district of 'hood. this isn't a rule of thumb, this just my impression. anywhere in the middle varies.

if i was coming to the city for the first time, i would probably live in roxbourgh. there's a lot of apartments there which tend to be higher than what you want, but some of them have perks. for example, "summit park" or something that sounds like that will set you back about $1000-$1100 a month, but it includes all utilities and membership to gym, pool, etc. also it has a club/tavern on it's property. roxbourgh is a family area, which is very close to the wissahickon park (awesome bike trails), manyunk (nice shops, awesome bars, food joints, etc.) and only a 15-20 bus/car trip into center city.

i live in the northeast which is very family oriented, but is farther from the inner city if that's where you want to go.

other areas to check out include:

fairmount (nice, pricey, close to cc)

northern liberties (pricey)

fishtown (up & coming from ghettoish)

jefferson square

greys ferry (mixed, but changing to young & yuppies)

the city is a great place for singles or couples w/o children. i am a born and bred city dweller, but am leaving after nursing school is finished. with a family, schools become the main issue. the city schools suck plain and simple. others tend to be expensive.

if you need more information about anything you could always email me directly at [email protected] (you see, philly is even in my name)

good luck!

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I did a 6 month travel assignment at Methodist hospital and would discourage anyone from working there - it wasn't fun, it wasn't staffed and it was filthy (nothing like escorting an awake, alert patient to a bed that has dried fecal matter on the siderails).

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Specializes in Maternal - Child Health.

As a former patient, I am firmly of the opinion that HUP is highly over-rated!

I received far better care (nursing and medical) in local community hospitals.

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Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

Late to the discussion.... Sean has posted the best areas correctly. university area best to look no further west than 44th street---lots of nice apartments in former mansions in that area. Visiting area frequently lately as son interested in Restaurant School at 42nd and Walnut (great place for gourmet meals on a budget) ;)

Had to laugh at 52nd as hood area. Worked in that area since 1977. Not the same type of ghetto as North Philly: stay out of zip codes 19120, 19121, 19133. 5 years ago did need to pull out homecare from patient round corner from 52nd and Market due to open drug dealing in Living room....

I agree that HUP is overrated: image based more on research monies it brings in. From my homecare nurse perspective, patient care/stabilization of discharged patients better in past 2 yrs.

I've been to Jeff with family + neighbors several times recently and really liked nursing care they've received. If you want to work inner city then Jeff would be my choice.

MCP is defunct this spring---once great place hit by lousy reimbursement.

Nursing unionized facilities under PASNAP:

City: Temple, Temple East:Northeastern

Suburbs: Crozer, Mercy Fitz

St Agnes is now long term Continuing Care Center: LTAC, SNF, LIFE program: long term community care Wavier program to keep people living independently at home instead SNF placement.

Trauma ER's with medivac:

Jeff, HUP, Einstein, Hahnemann

Good community ER's :

Nazareth (NE area) #1 for stoke care in PA,

Pennsylvania (anything major goes few blocks to Jeff)

Frankford Torresdale (far NE)

Mercy Philadelphia (still love the place as my 1st hospital employer, CEO is RN)

Suburb area check out:

Lankenau (off City Avenue)

Crozer --highest salary in area without Philly taxes

St Mary's (Bucks County)

Across the river: Cooper in Camden NJ

Job ads check out:

Nursing Spectrum: Philly tristate edition http://www.nursingspectrum.com/

Advance for Nurses:http://nursing.advanceweb.com/main.aspx

Philadelphia Inquirer: http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/

Career Builder, 54 pages of jobs: current Phila nursing jobs

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Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

general info on area:

about.com: greater philadelphia / south jersey your guide to the philadelphia pennsylvania and south jersey area featuring information on dining and restaurants, hotels and inns, sports, regional events,

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Ditto the North Philly statement. I actually live in the 19121 zip code and i'm not really sure what I was thinking when I signed the lease.My rent is only 375.00 dollars for a bi-level, two bedroom two bathroom row home, but you never know if your car will be where you left it in the morning. As for hospitals, only choose Temple if you can get into the ICU, L&D or ED. Do not take a med-surg offer with hopes of transfering in because its not worth it. Albert Einstein Medical Center in Olney does have very few wonderful people who work there but they can only for the most part be found in the MICU, CICU. SICU, ED...etc. The med-surg areas in this hospital not only have taken me completely by shock sometimes but I have found that there is a culture of abuse that is allowed. I have been screamed at, pushed, called stupid in front of patients when being their advocates, and have actually had nurses blame their mistakes on me if something went wrong. The recruitment office is really great though and they try real hard, the thing is they know about these abusive nurses and they won't fire them because of the staffing issues in med-surg. I still work at this hospital per diem, but I have shortened my hours greatly. I also work at CHOP over in University City and this place is amazing. If your interested in peds at all, its worth calling over here. Nice pay, free parking, and fab working conditions.

"Had to laugh at 52nd as hood area. Worked in that area since 1977. Not the same type of ghetto as North Philly: stay out of zip codes 19120, 19121, 19133. 5 years ago did need to pull out homecare from patient round corner from 52nd and Market due to open drug dealing in Living room...."

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