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Admission Service Assignments for ED Patients (pdf)
From a sterling clinical program all good things will flow ...
Tsunami
Disaster:
Doctors can help
School, SHC join initiative to improve patient service
Friends of Nursing group offers scholarships and grants
Geriatric health program coordinates services
Medical Center studies Michigan's joint venture
Nobel prize envy
Bruce T. ADORNATO
As most of you will understand, life is not easy when one of your co-residents wins the Nobel Prize in Medicine, especially when you recall that he actually enjoyed his vacations, had only a short differential list for agraphia/alexia and had been known to look up the mg/kg dose for phenytoin.
But I had to suppress the envy and love the guy when I heard him give a talk to fellow alumni at an annual neurology meeting. Rather than tell us about prions and neurodegeneration, a depressing topic, he began:
"... I always wanted to give a talk like this... my favorite New Yorker cartoons." And he did - 45 minutes worth of what was funny and what he liked and what, refreshingly, we all are actually thinking about.
Since I can't replicate his prize-winning research this month, I'll take a page from his talk to bring you my favorite recent New Yorker cartoon. It depicts an executive muttering at his desk with his head in his hands. In front of him stands the Grim Reaper, scythe in hand:
"Thank goodness you're here," the executive says. "I can't finish anything without a deadline."
That's the truth. I can't finish anything without a deadline. So here I am. How did Herb Caen make a daily column? Monthly is tough enough for me - dog ate my homework. My hard drive crashed. I have been so busy...
I have had an enjoyable holiday vacation, and now it's time to get down to business - my practice and the business of the medical staff. Since my job is not to entertain you, I do have some questions of mutual interest, or at least concern.
January 2005 is a little past the halfway mark of my term as medical staff president. What have we accomplished and what do we want to finish or at least begin?
We have reinstituted the importance of the Medical Staff Update as a communication
piece.
We have made a Stanford email address available to all medical staff members.
We have reconstituted deputy chiefs as an important part of the hospital
board.
We are in the process - if you want this - of establishing a physician
center, aka physician lounge, in the hospital.
The medical staff meeting has been revitalized with a new format and a
new location at the Clark Center.
We are working on changes in the staff bylaws to conform with California
state law 1325 regarding separation between medical staff and hospital
administration.
We have started to redefine the budget process for the medical staff so
we can plan our income and expenditures.
Now, what would I like to see started or enhanced during the rest of my term?
More involvement by
hospital staff members in committees. Understanding the increasing time
pressures for doctors, there is still an important reason for fulltime
faculty and adjunct faculty and other medical staff members to get involved
with the affairs of their hospital. We are exploring new ways to recruit
and train physician leaders for our hospital.
A reinstitution of scheduled deputy chief meetings to be held quarterly.
A quarterly luncheon working meeting at the hospital for medical staff
with an open agenda to discuss physician issues.
More input from you. To begin that process, we are developing a simple
but hopefully useful medical staff questionnaire which is slated to appear
in your next Medical Staff Update. Your responses will make a difference
on that questionnaire, but if you have thoughts or suggestions you need
not wait a month. Please contact me at:
I look forward to hearing from you. But please, don't send me your cartoons.
