N E W Sx I T E M S
Retired physicians honored by Medical Staff colleagues
Column: Kevin Tabb - chief quality and medical info officer
Massive transfusion protocol guidelines
Surgeon William G. Utzinger dies
Multidisciplinary relationships discussed by dean with faculty
Farewell to Falls supports community elderly
MEDICAL STAFF 2.0
Bruce T. ADORNATO
Although last month's (approximately 171st) semiannual Medical Staff Meeting was very well attended, more than a few of you missed this wide-ranging convocation. As we head into a new academic year with new housestaff and new hopes, I want to bring everyone up on deck, up to speed, on the same page, and into the fold.
We noted and applauded Martha Marsh's third year as CEO. She has had a number of accomplishments, including changing the color of ink on the financial ledger from red to black, affirming the continuation of Stanford Medical Center as a working dichotomy of university and community hospital, and most notable to me, congenial common sense and accessibility. Ms. Marsh introduced Kevin Tabb, MD, our new quality and medical information officer (see column, page 4) and also Helen Wilmot, who is leading the "North Campus" Project. This effort is expanding clinical services into Redwood City along Highway 101 in the old Excite@home building location. I continue to consider and live by one of Martha's comments when she arrived at Stanford three years ago. She said one of the important roles of an administrator, executive and manager is making this place somewhere you want to go whether you are a patient, nurse, physician, administrator or any other type of healthcare worker.
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California's Senate Bill 1325 was signed into law by the governor in January this year. I see it as a declaration of independence for medical staffs. It arose as a result of the dark side of a Ventura, Calif., hospital administration's efforts to take control of a medical staff. Some components of this attack included rewriting the bylaws to include disciplinary action against physicians perceived as competing with the hospital, not allowing physicians on the medical staff to hire an attorney with their own medical staff funds, and sequestering medical staff funds. For those of you interested, details can be found on the CMA website, http://www.cmanet.org, or a copy of the legislation can be downloaded at:
http://info.sen.ca.gov/cgi-bin/postquery?bill_number= sb_1325&sess=PREV&house=B&site=sen
Faculty anesthesiologist Kent Garman, your med staff VP, and I have examined our bylaws with two attorneys and feel that we are in compliance as an independent medical staff; we have our own elections, bylaws, and medical staff checkbook. We did note, however, an oversight in this process. There is no provision in the bylaws for a finance committee, or process to allocate expenditure, nor is there a treasurer designated as an elected officer of the medical staff.
Thus, we will be working on some bylaw revisions that should be available later this summer. Our tentative plan is to designate the vice president of the Medical Staff, an elected officer, as VP/treasurer with the duty of preparing a budget and presenting it for ratification to the Medical Board.
In addition, we would like to expand the duties of future presidents of the Medical Staff to help them work more closely and transparently with the chief of staff -who is appointed by the Dean of the Medical School and the CEO - to achieve more balance in the medical staff administration. Of course, this will require more time on the part of the new president, a mostly volunteer position. Accordingly, we plan to bring to the medical board an increase in the honorarium to partly offset the increased time and responsibility. These details are in process, so stay tuned.
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Speaking of elected officers, let me ask you to consider running for office. We will be having elections this summer for a new vice VP/treasurer. In the yin and yang of fulltime and community physician balance, it would be appropriate for a community physician to step up and run for office to follow Kent Garman's upcoming two-year presidency. We also need some new people on many of the committees which include Bylaws, Care Review, Credentials, Critical Care, Ethics, Health Information Management, Infection Control, Operating Room, Pharmacy and Therapeutics and several other steering committees and specialized bodies. If you are interested, please contact me or KGarman@stanford.edu, or Sandi Edgar, our executive administrator of the medical staff, sedgar@stanfordmed.org.
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There are a few other items for your consideration and participation. To continue my rejuvenation theme for the Medical Staff (vide supra Medical Staff 2.0), I have found growing interest in a Medical Staff Center (aka physician lounge). This space would be, in effect, a shelter for physicians where we could have some privacy for curbside consulting (HIPAA pleasing), Internet access, or quiet time for reading a newspaper, etc. The current problem is finding the right place near patient care and normal routes of physician traffic. Details will follow. Funding would not be a problem, since we have a healthy treasury and sufficient cash flow from dues to make this a permanent addition.
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Speaking of funds, we are open to suggestions about future expenditures for the benefit of the medical staff, such as a worthy scholarship, educational stipends and perhaps a bonding medical staff picnic for housestaff and medical staff physicians.
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We continue to look for means of keeping communication open. E-mail continues to grow as a communications tool, and those of you without e-mail are still invited to contact the medical staff office to get your stanfordmed.org e-mail access. Old fashioned media is also alive and well. We added a new Medical Staff Bulletin Board on the wall at the northwest first floor hospital cafeteria entrance (visible as you enter from the two-story north parking structure). There you can find information about upcoming issues and meetings, including departmental rounds.
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Finally, at the May meeting we honored three retired medical staff physicians, Drs. Andrew White, Donald Nagel, and Stanford Kroopf. (See article, page 1).We are accepting future nominations for this award for our next Medical Staff Meeting to will be held in October at the LinX Restaurant in the Clark Center next to Fairchild Auditorium. Send your suggestions and whatever else crosses your mind to me at
