Constant commitment

“Leadership is not a one-day thing. It is a constant commitment to excellence, a habit … a daily practice.” ~ John F. Kennedy, Jr.

June 17, 2011

Dear Colleagues and Friends:

Synchronicity …

We very much appreciate the efforts of all our teams in our pilot clinics (Internal Medicine, Geriatrics, General Pediatrics, and Neuroscience) with the implementation of Synchronicity (our ambulatory EHR). The Command Center teams have worked hard to be responsive in turning around solutions to the clinical teams. We are working out the early ‘bugs’. The major issue thus far is slowness of Synchronicity operations and this is being aggressively addressed and monitored very closely. Thanks to all of you for your support and engagement. We now only have a dwindling number of providers who have not signed up for mandatory training. All providers (physicians, residents, fellows, NPs, PAs, etc.,) have to be trained prior to the ‘big bang’ go live on June 28. If you have not registered for a training class, please go to this link for the training calendar http://hi.georgiahealth.edu/trainMe/Default.asp?pickDate=5/1/2011. For FAQs, please visit http://ehr.georgiahealth.edu/. We also have a PowerNote tutorial and it can be found here http://hi.georgiahealth.edu/trainmedia/. We thank everyone for your continued perseverance with this very important initiative.

Section of Experimental Medicine …

We are excited that our Department of Medicine has established a new Section of Experimental Medicine. David M. Pollock, Ph.D., Regents Professor, Section Chief with founding faculty members Jennifer S. Pollock, Ph.D., Weiss Professor, and Jennifer C. Sullivan, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, bring additional expertise building upon departmental strengths in hypertension, cardiovascular and kidney diseases – representing a coordinated and collaborative approach to advancing clinical translational research. This new section will also promote and support substantive efforts that are already underway for mentorship and career development of students, trainees and faculty.

Quality Presentation at the AAMC …

We are grateful to Drs. Dave Snyder, Bill Kanto, Mike Madaio and our highly respected Patient Advisor; Ms. Nettie Engels who recently presented a very well received workshop and panel discussion at the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) IQ Initiative meeting. This was a national meeting with quality leaders in medical education where our colleagues shared our quality campaign and what we are doing to increase our performance to the next level. They also shared our experiences with patient and family centered care and our efforts of taking patient quality care and safety improvement efforts directly to our Quality Unit Councils on our floors and units. Our thanks to you for your outstanding leadership in our quality campaign.

VA News …

Last week we had our Joint meeting with our VA leadership. We want to give you an update on some activities that have been going on across the street with the VA Hospital/Clinics. It was evident from the review of activities that there is real opportunity for enhancing quality in residency training with the VA. We are delighted that the VA is finalizing the Associate Chief of Staff for Research Opportunity. The VA had a Joint Commission survey and we heard of substantive changes in key areas such as Primary Care Specialties to include Rheumatology, Dermatology and Hematology/Oncology, and SLE and General Surgery, GI, and Orthopedic Services, as well as ICU bed and Palliative Care bed increases. We also learned that a 2nd MRI will be installed this year. Finally, we were delighted to learn of new recruitment efforts in Mental Health, Quality Management, Spinal Cord Injury, Surgical Services, and Specialty Care. We will continue to seek synergies through this vital partnership.

Congratulations Are In Order …

We want to offer our congratulations to Dr. Brian Miller, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Health Behavior as the recipient of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) 2011 Exemplary Psychiatrist award. There will be a special presentation of this award at Reid Memorial Presbyterian Church July 7 at 7 pm.

Please join me also in congratulating Dr. Geoff Young, Associate Dean for Admission on his recent appointment as Senior Director of Student Affairs and Programs at the Association of American Medical Colleges. This is a wonderful opportunity and while Dr. Young will be missed, we are grateful that he helped lead our transformation of the admissions process from paper and pencil to a fully electronic admissions system for a multi-campus medical school.

We also would like to say congratulations to Mr. Damon Cline, publisher of our Georgia Medicine Magazine. Georgia Medicine is distributed widely among our faculty, staff, alumni, community and national leaders. We have received glowing praise and feedback on the most recent edition focusing on leadership. If you have not read this edition of the Georgia Medicine, please drop by our office (AA 1002) or contact Damon Cline and we will make sure you get a copy/or you can access the PDF version at http://www.georgiahealth.edu/medicine/.

Resident of the Year …

We would like to congratulate Dr. Jennifer Malcolm, Family Medicine on being named the ‘Resident of the Year 2010-2011. Dr. Malcolm was chosen from a group of seventeen nominees. Six finalists were chosen and interviewed by the selection committee. All seventeen nominees are outstanding young physicians who represent the highest ideals of the medical profession.

A reminder of new resident orientation being held on June 27 in the Alumni Center. It is that time of year that our new residents begin their training. Please join me in welcoming them to GHSU.

Big Welcome …

Please join me in welcoming Dr. Andrew Balas as the Dean, College of Allied Health Studies. Our Provost, Dr. Gretchen Caughman is hosting a drop-in breakfast on Tuesday June 21 from 8 am to 10 am in the Health Sciences Building in the Bard Student Lounge.

Also, we want to welcome Ms. Susan Barcus as Senior Vice President for Advancement and Community Relations/Chief Development Office. Ms. Barcus’ expertise lies with fund-raising administration, program redesigns, team-building and philanthropy.

We are looking forward to beginning our relationship with both Dr. Balas and Ms. Barcus.

Adaptive Water Sports …

MCG Health and Champions Made From Adversity will hold an adaptive water-skiing day for children and adults with disabilities on Saturday June 18 at the Fort Gordon Recreation Center. Children’s activities begin at 10 am and adult’s activities will begin at 1 pm after a BBQ lunch. The activities include skiing, swimming, riding on inner tubes and in boats. Sounds like a fun event!