A
D I S S E C T I O N
O F
N E W S
F R O M
T H E
D E P A R T M E N T
O F
S U R G E R Y
The Scalpel Thoughts From the Chairman As the academic year ends, it is again time to celebrate the transition of young, bright physicians that will progress to the next year of training or graduate from our programs by successfully completing their residency or fellowship. Despite the wonderful time for celebration, there is a growing awareness that our healthcare system as we know it is failing. Clearly the financial situation of increased healthcare costs for patients and employers, decreased reimbursement and increased documentation requirements for physicians and hospitals is not sustainable. With growing transparency, we see greater Dr. Ramshaw concerns about the fragments of our healthcare system functioning as businesses focused on revenue growth more than accountability for providing value to the patient. We also see an increasingly complex patient population with patients taking more medications, having had more prior operations and a 1/3 of our population in the US in chronic pain. As a surgery department in an academic medical center, I believe we will need to address the challenge of figuring out how to deliver patient care in a way where costs are lowered, and outcomes are improved at the same time. This is a great challenge but also a great opportunity. This past year was a challenging year financially for our hospital partner, UTMC, resulting in a negative margin. Fortunately, we have a very collegial organization with excellent leadership. With the collaborative leadership of Joe Landsman, many people contributed to apply solutions to our financial downturn. Things are already looking brighter and through the hard work of our leadership, we recently received the news that we will be a provider again within the Blue Cross Blue Shield Network S.
Inside this Issue Summer 2018 ● Physicians Executive MBA ● Resident Research Day Visiting Lecturer
● 2018 Health Innovation Symposium ● New Residents and Fellows ● Faculty News ● Alumni Spotlight ● ACGME Diversity Outlook
● Academics
During these times of financial constraint, a growing issue has surfaced concerning the culture of our department and our organization. We have been blessed with a strong group of physician leaders who have been here for many decades, including our past Chair, Dr. Goldman. These physician leaders have promoted a culture that is focused on patient care and educating trainees over any practice or individual physician priority. In speaking with one of our faculty members, who came to us from a medical center with a much more competitive environment, he expressed an interest endocrine surgery, particularly thyroid procedures. He met with Dr. Nelson (another of those physician leaders responsible for our positive culture) who at that time was doing most of the thyroid procedures. Dr. Nelson was welcoming and supportive to help this young surgeon grow his practice, even though he was in a different physician practice group. This is not what would normally happen at most other organizations where competition breeds a poor culture. Continued...
Scalpel