Practice Perfect 946
CRIP 2025: Mostly a Success

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For those of our 4^th year podiatry students around the country, congratulations on completing the residency interviews! You completed yet another milestone in your pursuit to become a podiatric physician. I’m sure all of our young colleagues are breathing a heavy sigh of relief.

As a program director, I can’t help but reflect on my own experience and compare it to our students today. When I compare myself in 2003 to students today, I suffer by comparison. Our students are savvy, poised, and smart. They have better social interactions than I recall from myself, showing during the interviews their varied skills that they will bring to residency and sending thank you emails after the interviews. Knowing just how nerve wracking these interviews can be, I was impressed by how universally they held it together.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of being a college professor is watching our students transition from their early podiatry school personas to more self-confident and sophisticated clinicians at the end of their 4th year. Clearly, most of the students applying to residency this year are ready to take on the mantle of resident!

It’s also important to understand just how complex the CASPR CRIP program is, and I have to congratulate the program’s leadership on a mostly flawless transition from Frisco, Texas to Chicago, Illinois. As I indicated previously, I had significant concerns about having the interviews in this location in January. Luckily, the weather didn’t play a significant role in travels. It was cold (temps in the teens in the evenings) but bearable, even for a Southern California doctor more used to sunny and warmer winters.

There is also clearly a ton of behind-the-scenes organizing that must occur to manage the interviews and the subsequent rankings and match program. Remember that we had only recently switched over to the National Matching Service program, requiring additional work. All of the CASPR representatives handled themselves professionally, were friendly and very helpful. A job well done!

Now, I titled this editorial “Mostly a Success”, so I’ll make my one recommendation to the organizers to improve for the future: if at all possible, find a different hotel. The Embassy Suites O’Hare was insufficient for the interviews.

Right from the beginning at check-in I was disappointed with their service. They mistakenly gave the two residents with me a room with a single bed when I had ordered a double. They didn’t have a different room, but instead of trying to find a service-oriented solution their manager truculently maintained there was nothing to do. Ok, I understand the hotel might have been full, but perhaps a discount for a meal or something to demonstrate their humanity might have been appropriate. Like adults, my residents made their room work without a complaint.

The hotel’s structure was much the same as the one in Texas (long rectangle with a central opening) but with a broken elevator that was never fixed during the entire time we were there. They had an additional service elevator which was apparently not available to patrons. This led to long wait times, as one might imagine during an event that filled up the hotel, and they had the gall to put up signs demanding that only 6 people could be in the elevators at a time! Give me a break. Fix your elevators people.

The suites themselves were clearly smaller than the ones in Texas. My program has always chosen to interview in the suites, not wanting to pay for a conference room (travel is already expensive enough). This made for some awkward chair moving moments during the interviews. This may seem like a small issue, but we’re hosting residency faculty who take time away from their regular jobs to interview with us, and the interviewees are our guests, so it’s better to have everyone comfortable.

The food services were unfortunately well below par for what we’ve experienced in Texas. A reasonable breakfast was available each morning, but lunch was nonexistent. Our options were the hotel’s restaurant (which was understaffed with very slow service) or this weird cash only sandwich bar that had a hard time providing me with a receipt. Yes, after some wrangling and a 30-minute wait, the server wrote my receipt on a piece of hotel stationary. What century is this?

In Texas, a cafeteria-style lunch was available for a reasonable price. It was well organized by hotel staff and provided a tasty meal for interviewers and students on a very strict time schedule. They had vegetarian options and a good set of choices with desert. That was Texas hospitality! Unfortunately, we didn’t experience Chicago hospitality at this hotel.

All in all, I give the CASPR/NMS organizers and staff an A+ for strong organization, good communication, and friendly manners. Unfortunately, I have to give the hotel a C- for poor service, lack of facilities, and failure to predict the needs of a large group.

Next up, the match program culminating in March!

Best wishes.

Jarrod Shapiro, DPM
PRESENT Practice Perfect Editor
[email protected]