“Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.” ~Lou Holtz
March 11, 2010
Dear Colleagues and Friends:
Leadership, Caring, Knowing, Doing, Persisting …
We could not have asked for a more satisfying and appropriate finale to the most commemorative Black History month at GHSU. We hope you were able to attend Dr. David Satcher’s invigorating lecture on February 28. Dr. Satcher is truly an amazing American hero. Dr. Satcher is the 16th Surgeon General of the U.S. and served as Assistant Secretary for Health simultaneously. He also held the post of Director of the Center for Disease Control. Dr. Satcher’s exceptional knowledge and experience shined through as he spoke on leadership, caring, knowing, doing, and persisting. His comments were a magical interlacing of big vision, humanism, and core social science. He challenged us as Americans to acknowledge the disparities in healthcare and take on the leadership of remedying these disparities. He praised how the obesity epidemic has been brought to the forefront of our attention by Mrs. Michelle Obama. He also reminded us that the conditions, in which someone is born, raised and lives are more of an important determinant of health than healthcare. He exhorted us to work and research tirelessly to close the gap between what we know and what we do. Dr. Satcher also emphasized the need for funding of more research, access to quality healthcare, partnering with healthcare providers and providing access to a healthy lifestyle. Dr. Satcher is admired by leaders across the nation as the Surgeon General who listened to the American people and who has responded with effective programs. We thank President Azziz for bringing Dr. Satcher to campus.
Dr. Satcher’s remarks were most timely and resonated so well with the recently released 2010 National Healthcare Quality Report and National Healthcare Disparities Report from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The report was based on more than 200 healthcare measures in several areas of quality to include effectiveness, patient safety, timeliness, patient-centeredness, care coordination, efficiency, health system infrastructure and access. The highest rate of improvement was seen in measures related to treatment of acute needs. Modest gains were made in screening for preventive services and child and adult immunizations. However, core key lifestyle changes (such as reducing obesity, smoking cessation and substance abuse) showed no improvement. Moreover, racial disparities were evident in core measures as well as in quality of care and access to care. Clearly, we all still have much work to do …
EMR Update …
This past week, our EMR champions worked extremely hard during a two day training and review session. The focus of that review was system validation for the Ambulatory piece of the EMR project. Demonstration of the solution, hands on training, development of client-specific units and test scripts, as well as organizing assignments were reviewed and discussed as the next steps in preparing for enterprise wide dissemination. We want to say a big thank you to our clinicians and providers who have participated in these sessions and offered their comments and opinions. It has all been very positive and very productive. We are one step closer to meeting our goal of going live with our EMR at the end of June.
Awards and in the News …
We want to congratulate Dr. Kathryn (Katie) Bollinger on her 2011 Young Physician Scientist award from the American Glaucoma Society. Dr. Bollinger was one of seven physicians to receive this award. This is a great testament to the commitment and dedication to not only Dr. Bollinger but also her mentor, Dr. Sylvia Smith. Congratulations!!
Congratulations also to Drs. Laura Mulloy and Matt Diamond in the Division of Nephrology – the SPRINT study that they are involved in – a NIH clinical trial that was highlighted on the local news this week.
ACGME and Georgia’s Physician Workforce …
We would like to congratulate our Surgical Critical Care Residency Program. It’s the latest of our 42 ACGME residency training programs to be accredited. This is a one-year training program in the Department of Surgery. Congratulations to all who participated and made this happen.
We recently also received some very good information from the Georgia Physician Workforce Board (GPWB) regarding Graduation Medical Education (GME). As we’ve recently been discussing is the need for more physicians in the state of Georgia. We would like to highlight and share some of the information with you. The state has invested heavily in expanding undergraduate medical education. However, expanding medical school education does not alone address Georgia’s need for more physicians. We must also increase GME positions within the state and encourage our residents to stay in Georgia to practice. Teaching hospitals and residents are, of course, a vital part of the healthcare delivery system in Georgia. The data illustrates that the majority of Georgia’s first year residency positions are filled by non-Georgia medical school graduates. Of the 747 first year residency positions filled for academic year 2010-2011, 118 were filled by Georgia medical school graduates. It is noteworthy that Georgia has increased its residency positions by only 26% in the last ten years: on the other hand, as you know, we have worked hard to increase our student numbers such that now state medical school enrollment has increased 48.5%. These figures are in contrast with national statistics which show that Georgia’s rate of 20.8 residents per 100,000 population ranks at 39th, well below the national average of 35.7. Accordingly, the GPWB has estimated that we would have to add approximately 1,450 residency positions to meet the national average. These statistics make Dr. Moore’s efforts to obtain new redistributed residency slots all the more important. According to the 2010 GPWB Exit Survey, among Georgia residents, the top reasons for residents leaving Georgia after training included proximity to family; better jobs in desired locations outside of Georgia, better salaries outside of Georgia and prior intention to leave Georgia after training. However, nearly 76% of those residents staying in-state had plans to practice within 60 miles of their training program. This is a trend that we need to amplify as we attempt to alleviate our physician shortages. We are grateful to GPWB for providing such comprehensive information and we will be pleased to provide additional GPWB information on other core aspects of this key issue for Georgia.
Medical Students Spotted in SE Georgia …
We want to congratulate Dr. Kathryn Martin, Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs at our Southeast Georgia campus on making exceptional progress toward establishing a full regional clinical campus in SE Georgia. The “Southeast Seven”, as they are called, will begin in July as the first group to spend most of their third year living and learning in SE Georgia. Seven core areas – OB/GYN, surgery, psychiatry, pediatrics, family medicine, internal medicine and neurology now have clerkship sites. The plan is to move to full residential status in 2012. We have over 150 volunteer clinical faculty from all over the southeast part of the state, including St. Joseph’s/Candler Health System and Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah, Southeast Georgia Health System in Brunswick, East Georgia Regional Medical Center in Statesboro along with the health systems in Waycross, Blackshear, Jesup, along with Winn Army Medical Center and the Camden Campus of Southeast Georgia Health System. The campus, based at St. Joseph’s/Candler in Savannah and Brunswick’s Southeast Georgia Health System, will eventually have 20 students living in the area full-time in addition to the students who transition through the region one clinical rotation at a time. We are looking forward to hearing from these students and their exciting experiences. GHSU began an overall expansion plan to increase the Medical College of Georgia class size from 190 to 300 students by 2020 to help meet the need for physicians in a state that ranks in the top 10 both in population and population growth, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The plan also includes the Southwest Georgia Clinical Campus based at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, which has been a residential campus since last July, the four-year GHSU/UGA Partnership with 40 students that began classes in August, and another clinical campus in Rome, which was announced in November with plans to be operational by 2013. We thank all our colleagues and our partners in Savannah for their hard work in preparing this training site. Our students are going to have great opportunities here.
Igniting the Dream … A Wonderful Day Inspiring Georgia’s Students With an Interest in Careers in Medicine
In previous Dean’s Diaries, we’ve been highlighting the inaugural event “Igniting the Dream of Medicine”, sponsored by the SNMA and the Office of Diversity Affairs that was held March 5. This was a first-ever event for minority high school and college students and it offered an understanding of what the medical college is really like. There were 148 students from all over the state of Georgia who participated in this inspiring and invigorating event. We give special thanks to Dr. Kim Halbur, Associate Dean for Diversity Affairs, Dr. Geoffrey Young, Associate Dean for Admissions, Ms. Wilma Sykes-Brown, Director of Diversity Support Services and Advisor, SNMA, and LaShon Sturgis, SNMA President. LaShon did an outstanding job the entire day. We also appreciate the efforts of many others among our medical students as well as faculty who volunteered their support of the day. Nobody was disappointed as it was truly a motivating and learning experience for all of us. We were also gratified that so many college (and some high school) students from all across the state turned out. They learned a lot and they were very appreciative. Our thanks to all involved.
Recognition for a job well done … continuing to be well done …
We would like to draw your attention to a recent article in the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) newsroom featuring Dr. Robert (Bob) Nesbitt, Jr. Dr. Nesbitt is one of four physicians highlighted as the “unretiring”. They have embraced retirement that really isn’t retirement. It is an enlightening article on the importance of our “retirees”, sharing their knowledge and expertise to our next generation of physicians. We are extremely proud and grateful to Dr. Nesbitt and all of our volunteer faculty for the time that they “give” to our students, for the knowledge and wisdom they share, and for continuing to do what they love … educating students. Please take a moment and check out the story here https://www.aamc.org/newsroom/reporter/feb11/174762/the_unretired_physician.html
SACS and QEP … Our Site Visit is Coming Up Shortly …
Our SACS accreditation visit is coming up at the end of the month. We want to remind you that there will be a luncheon March 16 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Wellness Center to familiarize the campus with its Quality Enhancement Plan, “Healthy Perspectives.” This is a core component of our SACS accreditation and will be a real focus for our on-site visit. Please bring your colleague along with you for hot dogs, drinks and even door prizes. You may be the lucky winner of an iPad which will be drawn for at 12:30. See you there!
Benefit Performance …
We wanted to notify you of a benefit performance of “The Vagina Monologues” by the Ladies of AMWA, this Friday and Saturday evening at 7 pm each night at Le Chat Noir Theatre on 8th Street. There will be a fully stocked bar, silent auction, as well as t-shirts and chocolate covered strawberries for sale. Proceeds will benefit SafeHomes of Augusta and The Hope House. The cast includes students from the Medical College of Georgia and the College of Dental Medicine. Come out for a great cause and lots of fun and laughs.
A Night of Fun at the RiverHawks …
The Vision Discovery Institute (VDI) has teamed up with the Augusta RiverHawks for a fund-raising game for the VDI. Dr. Azziz and the GHSU Leadership will drop the puck at 7:30 pm on March 19 at the James Brown Arena. There will be specially designed jerseys that will be auctioned off at the end of the game. Discount tickets are on sale for employees at www.georgialinatix.com , by calling 866-4AUG-TIX or by walk-up at the window. You must use the promotional code GHSUVDI when purchasing. For more information, contact Joel Smith at 706-721-0343 or jsmith6@georgiahealth.edu. Come join my family and me for a night of great fun as we cheer on the Augusta RiverHawks to a winning game!!
A Chance to Chat …
Please join us at the 4th Open Forum with Dr. Azziz on Tuesday March 15th in the Lee Auditorium. This is a great opportunity for open dialogue with the President about current events, ‘happenings’ and issues affecting GHSU.
Finally …
Our thoughts are with our colleagues and friends who have family and friends affected by the recent earthquake in Japan and tsunamis that have followed in Japan, Hawaii, and the West Coast of the U.S. We realize it may be some time before you hear of their safety … in the meantime; if there is anything we can do, please know our door is always open.
Many thanks for all you do …