Archive for: July, 2009
Fellowship forum: Create a welcoming Web site for prospective applicants
Ahhhhhh. All your fellows are now safely ensconced into their subspecialties, and all of your national data are submitted. Sigh of relief!
But, wait! There’s one more important thing for fellowship coordinators to do before heading for the beach (mountains, desert, mom and dad’s…). It’s time to update your own program’s Web site because clear-thinking residents are already looking around at subspecialty options.
Don’t skip electronic professionalism lessons for trainees
Sometimes all it takes is a small action by a resident to spark an idea for a new lecture series or other learning activity.
Nancy Spector, MD, pediatric associate program director at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia launched an e-professionalism lecture series after she was CC’d on an e-mail from a resident to all other trainees that included a reminder to censor their replies because Dr. Spector would receive them as well.
Do conflict of interest policies hurt GME and medicine?
Chances are, your program’s budget has felt the effects of the economic downturn. But according to many of the coordinators I’ve spoken to, there’s another factor causing funding woes: Policies that limit or disallow GME programs from accepting money from Pharma and other industry sources.
Teach key aspects of systems-based practice with this workshop model
Congratulations to Cynthia Pineda, MD FFAPM&R, associate program director for the physical medicine and rehabilitation residency program at National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington DC. She has won free entry to 4th Annual Residency Program Management Workshop, which will be held October 22-23 in Atlanta, GA. Click here to find out how to win free entry.
For many physicians and educators, systems-based practice (SBP) is one of the more complex and challenging ACGME competencies to teach and assess.
Physical medicine and rehabilitation (PMR) is a field that emphasizes interdisciplinary care in a team-oriented approach with the aim of providing quality comprehensive care that is unique to each individual patient. Physiatrists are involved in every segment of the healthcare delivery system on a daily basis while providing a continuum of care to patients, while effectively using available resources and maximizing functional outcomes. In our program, residents learn about SBP in a one-day collaborative pilot workshop entitled “The Alpha-numeric Soup: A Systems-based Practice Workshop for the PMR Resident.”
Topics covered during the workshop include:
• Understanding Acronyms Used in Healthcare
• Billing and Coding 101
• The Therapeutic Recreation Program: Volunteering in Community Activities
• Understanding Reimbursement Systems and Documentation in Rehabilitation
• How to Build and Run a Private Practice in PMR
• Understanding Information Systems
Multiple methods of instruction were employed to promote participant interaction such as case-based presentations, videos, hands-on-exercises on billing and coding and the use of the audience response system. A multi-disciplinary team composed of physiatrists, nurses, quality improvement staff, referrals and care management staff, a recreation therapist, a clinical documentation specialist, a systems coordinator and administrators facilitated the educational exercise. Post-survey workshop evaluations were favorable.
Future steps include developing our SBP curriculum and build an evaluation tool that will help assess knowledge translation to best practice. This workshop provides an innovative opportunity for residents to increase their awareness of the healthcare system and relate with an interdisciplinary team of rehabilitation and allied health professionals, which is the heart of both SBP and PMR.
Plan a program leadership retreat
We’re all off and running! The new chiefs have started, new trainees have started, and schedules are generally stable. Recruitment is on the horizon, but it feels suddenly, albeit briefly, like a little bit of a reprieve.
Solve evaluation woes by setting expectations for meeting deadlines
For many coordinators, running a marathon would take less effort than trying to get residents to turn in their evaluations and paperwork on time. Although electronic systems, such as New Innovations and E*Value, have made disseminating evaluations and tracking who has completed them much easier for many programs, the bottom line is that this process is still a major frustration for coordinators.
Taking a vacation? Prepare the program, director and residents before you go
There’s no question that coordinators have a lot-sometimes too much-to do. This makes going on vacation difficult, especially when there’s no one else to keep up with all of the paperwork, e-mails, and questions while you’re gone. Some coordinators may even feel reluctant to take a vacation!
Coordinator To-Do List for July
I know we’re more than two weeks in to July, but I thought better late than never.
Here are a couple of items, which may be on your to-do list this month:
- Orientation
- Orientation
- Orientation
- Help new residents transition into the program
- Begin monitoring/tracking duty hours
- Send out survey to residents who participated in orientation asking what can be improved next year
- Look out for deadlines for the annual ACGME ADS and GME Track updates
- Process loan deferment forms, many are due this time of the year
- Process requests from potential applicants
What else are coordinators up to this month? Leave a comment in the box below.
Get coordinators involved in internal reviews
While working on our book, Internal Review Made Simple, I learned that examining program documentation is one of the most arduous tasks undertaken during internal reviews. I brought that up recently during a conversation with a GME leader, who was describing how she recently revised her institution’s internal review process.
ACGME puts Chicago neurosurgery program on probation
The ACGME put the neurosurgery program at the University of Chicago on a two-year probation, according to a FierceHealthcare article.
Although the ACGME has not yet said that this is the reason why the program was put on probation, program leaders have an idea of what caused the adverse action.
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