Category Archives: Sandpoint

Dr. Crane and Sandpoint are the best!

I absolutely loved my month in Sandpoint, Idaho. Dr. Crane, and now Jesse Abbot Klafter (UW residency alumn), are both awesome to work with and great teachers. You get exposure to both rural inpatient and outpatient medicine. There is great continuity, as you are often seeing the patients you took care of on the wards, in clinic for follow-up. There is also a ton of flexibility on this rotation in that you are free to take as little or as much call as you want.

The town of Sandpoint is pretty small, I believe about 7,000 people. You really get to know the people you work with and the town itself. If you get a chance to stay with Sharon, you definitely should. She does a great job introducing you to the town and local hot spots. Speaking of which, there is plenty of awesome things to do in Sandpoint. You are half an hour from Schweitzer in the winter and close to great hiking and biking trails in the summer.

In sum, choose this WWAMI. It’s pretty great!

 

Sandpoint

IMG_1345

Sandpoint is hands down the best WWAMI experience! You work with Dr. Charlie Crane who embodies the old-school internist of “doing it all.” He alternates working a week in the clinic with a week doing a hospitalist gig (and a little clinic thrown also) in addition to doing his own EGDs, colonoscopies, TEEs, intubations and reading his own ECHOs. I had hands on experience doing all the aforementioned procedures and also placed 2 subclavian lines and 2 tunneled lines plus several other procedures including an intubation! It was an amazing learning experience to work in a small town with limited resources and really improved my clinical skills.

Beyond the medicine, the outdoor opportunities here are endless. I skied 5 days (even though I was only there for one week when Schweitzer was still open), mountain biked, hiked and went on trail runs. In the summer, the lake is warm and there are ample watersport activities. The nightlife is also surprisingly busy for such a small town- I went to two different concerts and enjoyed hanging out at some of the local bars.IMG_1372

I cannot recommend this rotation enough! I will definitely be coming back to Sandpoint in the near future.

Susie

Sandpoint, ID

I joined Dr. Charlie Crane in Sandpoint for March, 2010. He is one of four MDs in a bustling practice that is primarly clinic with inpatient including ICU crossover. Schedule is highly flexible depending on interests — Dr. Crane does most everything. 

The town is small and picturesque. The clinic and hospital are separated by a couple of blocks. The conditions on Schweitzer were really pretty good, and we were on the mountain about 3 days a week. 

All at Dr. Crane’s practice are extremely welcoming. Lodging was housesitting his partner’s 40 acre farm, and meant collecting chicken eggs, feeding the rabbits and running with the german shepherd.

Overall an unbelievable experience, highly recommended, and a great opportunity to strengthen primary care, skiing, and farming skills.

Sandpoint Rocks

I loved my WWAMI month in Sandpoint, ID so much that I went twice!  The month is a neat balance of inpatient, outpatient with oodles of continuity, and procedures—EGD, colonscopy, and TEE.  Dr. Crane’s breadth of knowledge is truly awesome and he enjoys both teaching and learning from you.  You get most if not all weekends off and can go skiing at Schweitzer ski resort in winter or swimming in Lake Pend Orielle and backpacking and huckleberry picking in the summer.  I’m happy to talk to anyone about this experience! 

Lake Pend Oreille in Sandpoint, ID

Lake Pend Oreille in Sandpoint, ID