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MSUCOM Career Guidance
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Selecting Your Base Hospital: Should You Be Worried?
Timeline
Step
Explore base hospital options
Tour base hospitals
Select base hospital preferences
Base hospital lottery
FAQ
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When?
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1 year
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Summer between 1 & 2 years
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Early August of 2 year
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Early September of 2 year
How can I learn about the different base hospitals that are available?
How important is it that I try to pick the “best” base hospital for my clerkship training?
Will the “wrong” base hospital jeopardize my ability to obtain my preferred residency?
What factors should I consider when making my selection?
What is the basic process for assignment to a base hospital?
What is the “lottery”?
Can I trade base hospitals with a classmate?
How can I learn about the different base hospitals that are available?
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Attend the DME Expo at the annual MOA meeting
Research the base hospitals online
Contact base hospital Medical Education Coordinators
Tour the hospitals
Talk to base hospital liaisons, MSUCOM administrators, clinical teaching faculty, and your MSUCOM
career guidance advisor
How important is it that I try to pick the “best” base hospital for my clerkship training?
For most students, choice of base hospital is not particularly important, though it may seem to be, and falls under
the general category of “small stuff,” as in “Don’t sweat the….” There are many reasons why this is so, including:
 All base hospitals provide an excellent clerkship education. Though there are real differences among the
base hospitals, the MSUCOM core curriculum ensures you will be adequately trained.
 You are at your base hospital for a relatively short amount of time. Because you are allowed 36 weeks of
selective and elective rotations outside of your base hospital, you may be at your base hospital for as little
as one year.
 You can use selective and elective rotations to explore specialties and residency programs outside of
your base hospital.
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 Early in the 2 year, most students are still in an “exploratory” phase when it comes to specialty choice
and residency program selection; therefore, for most students, it is premature to consider these factors
when selecting a base hospital.
For some students, base hospital selection may be more important due to personal/family issues that may
necessitate being located in a specific geographic region. These students may request “special consideration.”
Bottom line: Selecting a base hospital should not become a source of anxiety or concern. No matter where you
receive your clinical training, your experience—whether positive or negative—and how much you learn are much
more dependent on your attitude and your level of engagement than on the attributes of the specific base hospital
in which you train.
Will the “wrong” base hospital jeopardize my ability to obtain my preferred residency?
No. Though there may be an advantage to being “known” to the residency programs to which you are applying,
most students apply to and “rank” programs outside of their base hospital. With the availability of selective and
elective rotations, as well as “Clinical Enrichment Experiences,” you will have many opportunities to rotate in
programs of interest.
What factors should I consider when making my selection?
When evaluating base hospitals, the following factors are most commonly considered:
 Geographic location: region of the state; setting: urban, suburban, or rural; cost of living, housing,
transportation, parking, availability of entertainment, good restaurants, etc.
 Social and educational “environment” of the hospital and “fit” with personality preferences
 Availability of residency training programs in your area of specialty interest
MSUCOM Career Guidance
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Number of residency training positions available (a potential indicator of the educational environment,
e.g., availability of structured educational opportunities)
Size of the hospital
Diversity and make-up of patient population
What is the basic process for assignment to a base hospital?
Essentially, the process entails researching (or not; this is your choice) the available base hospitals and then
using an online system to select your preferred hospital. If more students than there are available slots select your
preferred hospital, it is “over-selected” and will “go to lottery.”
What is the “lottery”?
The lottery is the mechanism used to deal with “over-selection” of a base hospital. If your preferred hospital is not
over-selected you do not have to participate. If your preferred hospital is over-selected, this is when not being
overly emotionally invested in the outcome really pays dividends. It does not matter if you were the first person or
the last person to select the hospital, if it is over-selected then it goes to lottery, period, and you will have to
participate in the process, period.
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When does the lottery occur?
Typically the evening of the day after the online selection process has closed.
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How does the lottery process work?
All participants come together in a room—SEMI sites on Polycom—for a lottery drawing (names are
drawn out of a box). Proceeding in alphabetical order by hospital name, for each over-selected hospital
student names are drawn until the positions are filled: if a hospital has 10 positions, then 10 names are
drawn. Once your name is drawn/selected your position is “secured” and you are done.
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What happens if my name is not drawn during the lottery for my preferred base hospital?
If your name is not drawn and you therefore do not yet have a base hospital assignment, then you must
go through the “secondary base hospital selection process.” All remaining open positions in underselected hospitals are posted live (during the lottery process) so that you can review them and choose
your next most preferred hospital. If that hospital remains under-selected then your position is secured. If
your second choice becomes over-selected during the secondary base hospital selection process, then it
will go to lottery and the process repeats until all students are assigned.
Can I trade base hospitals with a classmate?
Yes, there is a 10-day window in which students can exchange their base hospital assignment with a classmate.
Additional information available on the College web site:
MSUCOM>>Students>>Clerkship Program
 Choosing Your Base Hospital http://www.com.msu.edu/Students/Clerkship/Home.htm
MSUCOM>>Academics>>D.O. Program>>Rotations (Years 3&4)
 Clinical Clerkship Curriculum (C3/R2 Curriculum Track)
http://www.com.msu.edu/AP/clerkship_program/top_page_links_clerkship/c3_r2_curriculum/c3_r2_curric
ulum.htm
 Clinical Clerkship Program Requirements
http://www.com.msu.edu/AP/clerkship_program/top_page_links_clerkship/c3_r2_curriculum/c3_r2_clerks
hip_program_requirements.htm
Base Hospital Special Consideration
 Policy
http://www.com.msu.edu/AP/clerkship_program/clerkship_documents/clerkship_applications/base_hospit
al_special_considerations_policy_version_2014.03.pdf
 Request Form
http://www.com.msu.edu/AP/clerkship_program/clerkship_documents/clerkship_applications/special_con
sideration_request_form_2014.pdf