JUNE 2002
Volume 26 • No. 6

Modest changes in Update will address readers' feedback

The readers of Medical Staff Update read the publication regularly, prefer to read it on paper - not online - and generally like the mix of stories it features. Some readers, though, feel the publication should be more useful and reader-friendly. And some complain that it has neglected the medical staff's community-based physicians by focusing too much on Stanford faculty.

Those are the key findings of a readership survey for Medical Staff Update conducted last winter. Based on those findings and other recent feedback from the medical staff leadership, the Office of Communication & Public Affairs - which produces the newsletter - is making modest changes in the publication.

The readership survey was an eight-item questionnaire inserted into the December 2001 issue of Medical Staff Update. Of the approximately 2,000 people who receive the publication, 107 responded to the survey.

Key survey questions and responses included the following:

At medical staff meeting, Marsh presents her vision for SHC

Diagnostic images will soon be just a click away

Stanford conference on opiates offers guidance on misunderstood medications

Facilities changes will open up 20 more beds at Stanford Hospital

Surgery professor advocates aggressive, preventive treatment of anal cancer

New residents arrive; all will get POE training

Medical Staff stipends help nurses achieve educational goals

Modest changes in Update will address readers' feedback

Doctors asked to complete survey for Lane Library

I read Update regularly upon receiving it:
• 95 percent responded either "usually" or "always."

The articles and other content are appropriate for a physician audience:
• 86 percent either "somewhat agree" or "strongly agree."

Update should be weighted toward medical and technical news:
• 72 percent said they either "somewhat agree" or "strongly agree."

Update should be weighted toward hospital news, such as facilities and policies:
• 77 percent said they either "somewhat agree" or "strongly agree."

I would prefer a print version of Update instead of an online version:
• 72 percent said they either "strongly agree" or "somewhat agree."

I would prefer an online version of Update:
• only 18 percent said they either "strongly agree" or "somewhat agree."

Other comments from readers included the following:

• "Seems pretty good - I have no complaints. Use it as a vehicle for critical news; avoid fluff."

• "If I had to read it online, I would probably never get around to looking at it."

• In this day and age, I would prefer a more condensed format."

• Keep the balance of articles you currently have."

• Keep a balance of community news, medical/technical news and hospital news - all serve useful functions. Increase the coverage of community physicians."

• I love your format and layout. Do not change."

• Greater orientation toward community physicians would be a nice change. There has been a lack of interest in community physician achievements."

Story lengths have been shortened to allow the inclusion of more articles. Greater emphasis has been placed on informational articles, such as those on hospital policy, leadership or facilities changes. Additionally, the "Fact File" section, which profiled individual clinical services at the hospital, was discontinued. Medical Staff Update will continue to be published monthly in printed format, as well as online at http://www-med.stanford.edu/shs/update.

Starting with this issue, the back-page chart providing the hospital's patient admission numbers will be published once a year, instead of each month, because of limited reader interest.

In addition, a concerted effort will be made to increase the visibility and coverage of community-based physicians, and to cover issues of particular relevance to community physicians, such as remote access to clinical applications and changes that affect community physicians' access to hospital services.

Medical Staff Update editor Sara Selis welcomes your suggestions, comments and story ideas. She can be reached at (650) 723-7798 or at selis@stanford.edu.