Dear Prospective Residents,

After a long journey, it’s now time to begin the search for a residency program! Your personal statement, CV, Dean’s letter, letters of recommendation, and experiences will help residency programs get to know your personal story. While we have gotten to know you through your application, there is more to you than can be conveyed on paper, and that is what is most important to us on interview day.

Every residency program has its own history and culture. Ours revolves around a dedication to our community, innovative thinking, teamwork, and care for our patients and for each other. Our hospital has humble beginnings. In 1891 a small group of Grand Rapids women identified a need for medical care for disadvantaged citizens. They created a fundraising campaign to fund a single free bed in the local hospital, asking for a donation from everyone named Mary, or anyone who knew a Mary. That bed became known as the “Mary Free Bed.” Under the leadership of the Mary Free Bed Guild, which still oversees strategic decisions for the hospital, our hospital has evolved and expanded to meet the needs of West Michigan. And as Mary Free Bed has established themselves as one of the top rehab programs in the country, we’ve welcomed Illinois, Indiana, West Virginia, and Virginia into the Mary Free Bed Community!

Our hospital offers robust inpatient and outpatient training including medically complex, pediatric, cancer, musculoskeletal, and neurologic (ranging from brain injury to stroke to spinal cord injury) rehabilitation. We are one of the few rehabilitation hospitals in the region to care for ventilatory dependent patients, and we are cementing Grand Rapids as the location for high acuity pediatric rehabilitation in the region as we eagerly anticipate opening our state-of-the-art, standalone pediatric rehabilitation hospital in the coming years. Residents enjoy outpatient electrodiagnostic, musculoskeletal, neurologic, interventional spine, and pain, and functional rehabilitation rotations.  We also have the opportunity to work with our in-house prosthetics and orthotics department from initial evaluation to fabrication, and any adjustments that may be needed in the future.  Additionally, we have the ability to work closely with our community in the multitude of adaptive sport programs that Mary Free Bed offers (which includes adaptive hockey, tennis, skiing – we’ve even had Paralympian alumnus).  We often call Mary Free Bed a “one stop shop” for all things rehabilitation.

As you weigh your future options, we hope that you will strongly consider joining the Mary Free Bed family. We seek candidates who are passionate about patient care, who are motivated and intellectually curious, and most importantly seek to make each day better for their patients, colleagues, and Grand Rapids community.

If there are any questions that you have throughout the process, please contact our residency program coordinator, Sarah Thompson at PMR.Residency@maryfreebed.com.

Our best wishes for a successful search!

Michelle Andary, DO
Chief Resident

Fred Heitjan, MD
Chief Resident