People discourage Mercy and a lot has to do with the population. They tend to get more homeless and addiction issues than other ERs (not that the others don't get their share). Mercy has in house detox that patients can be admitted to straight from the ER.

However, Mercy is a burn center so if that's experience you want. I also know someone who has to frequently go to the ER as a patient and he loves going to Mercy

Mercy ER is overrun and when I was interviewing, as soon as I was alone with the nurses, they told me to run in the opposite direction.

The other comment about the population is not why - I want to work with that population specifically and ended up taking another job at Mercy specifically because of that. I was asked in my interview how I felt about mandatory overtime. You won’t get a proper orientation, period, you just won’t. The techs seem to like it there though if you’re a tech.

Shadyside’s ED had me shadow with a new grad (yikes) and was perfectly open about being exclusively travelers overnight. Pretty clearly a hot mess. Noped out real quick. However, the people at Shadyside seemed pretty nice.

I haven’t been in West Penn’s actually but I spent some time up on the floor and people didn’t have any good things to say.

It really depends on what role you’re performing in an ER, and what you expect out of your work experience. My perspective is mostly from a nursing point of view.

As a patient, there’s lots of different considerations. If you’re withdrawing, definitely go to Mercy. If you’re burnt, go to Mercy or West Penn. If you are leaking spinal fluid out of your nose or having a dental emergency, go to Presby. If you are having a cancer crisis, go to Shadyside. If you’re pregnant, go to Magee or West Penn, etc. Similarly, if you have particular professional issues or interests, that may guide you.