Surgery News - April 2008 - (Page 15)

APRIL 2008 • SURGERY NEWS NEWS FROM THE COLLEGE Task Force to Analyze Impact of MS.1.20 Standard special fact-finding task force established by The Joint Commission will examine implementation issues related to revised hospital medical staff standard MS.1.20 and address concerns raised by the health care community. The revised standard MS.1.20, approved by The Joint Commission’s Board of Commissioners in June 2007, will become effective in July 2009. The 16-member task force will analyze the potential impact of implementing the revised standard through the examination of case examples and factual information and will suggest mitigating remedies to support achievement of the objectives of the standard revision. The intent of the revised standard is to support and reinforce a productive working relationship between the medical staff and the governing body while minimizing disruptions to the hospital, including its medical staff. The revised standard calls for the medical staff and the governing body to work together, reflecting clearly recognized roles, responsibilities, and accountabilities, to enhance the quality and safety of care provided to patients. The MS.1.20 implementation task force will focus on gaining a better understanding of the practical implementation issues related to hospital compliance with the following four concepts contained within the revised standard: the flexibility allowed the organized medical staff and the governing body on the placement of documents in or outside of the medical staff bylaws; the expectation that the decisions of the medical executive committee reflect the wishes of the organized medical staff; the expectation that organizations with productive working relationships among leadership will find the voting requirements of the organized medical staff reasonable to implement; and the method to limit items requiring joint approval, thus not burdening the hospital. An additional aim is to allay concerns related to the amount of time and money required to meet the mandates of the revised standard within a well-functioning organization. Organizations proceeding with any medical staff bylaws revisions are advised that The Joint Commission will act as expeditiously as possible on recommendations from the task force. It is anticipated that the task force’s report will be available later in the first quarter of this year. College Adds Selected Readings To Roster of CME Materials T he College’s Division of Education, headquartered in Chicago, is now publishing Selected Readings in General Surgery, which for more than 30 years has been produced at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Published 11 times per year, Selected Readings in General Surgery offers a comprehensive surgical education for surgeons and residency programs worldwide. The journal provides a thorough review of topics in general surgery in a 3-year cycle by reviewing more than 150 articles. Each issue includes 10-15 complete article reprints, an overview, a bibliography, and a self-assessment quiz. “It is both a great honor and an exciting challenge to lead the transformation of Selected Readings,” Editor in Chief Lewis Flint, M.D., FACS, said. “The journal has a long-standing reputation as an invaluable resource for practicing and resi- dent surgeons. It is my goal to sustain its quality of information and make accessibility improvements by offering enhanced Web capabilities.” “We are enthusiastic about adding Selected Readings in General Surgery to our lineup of continuing medical education [CME] vehicles,” ACS Executive Director Thomas R. Russell, M.D., FACS, said. “It is a valuable tool to help our members stay up to date in the field and assist them with their Maintenance of Certification. We welcome the full range of expertise that Dr. Flint and his editorial staff bring to the College for this endeavor. Selected Readings—along with our Evidence-Based Reviews in Surgery and The Surgical Index—enables us to further enhance our strong efforts to help busy practicing surgeons and residents stay abreast of current developments in surgery.” The March issue of Selected Readings, which addresses the spleen, features an overview and articles selected by Dr. Flint. Subscribers can look forward to changes such as an editorial review board composed of leading surgeons, improved CME test questions, and a more userfriendly online experience. Topics addressing core competencies, evidence-based surgery, and outcomes will also be added. It is hoped that marketing initiatives will increase readership. According to Ajit K. Sachdeva, M.D., FACS, FRCSC, director of the Division of Education,“We are delighted to include Selected Readings in General Surgery to [our] repertoire, which is especially designed to meet the current and future educational needs of practicing surgeons and surgical residents. This exceptional resource should help individuals deliver state-of-the-art, evidence-based surgical care and support efforts directed at maintaining certification in surgery.” For more information, contact Kimberly Cambric at 312-2025227 or kcambric@facs.org. NTDB Clarifies Meaning of ‘Rural’ B Y R I C H A R D J. FA N T U S , M . D. , FA C S , A N D T O M F O L E Y, M . D . , F A C S Nominations Sought for 2008 AWS Awards ach year the Association of Women Surgeons (AWS) Foundation presents awards to individuals who are supportive of its mission “to inspire, encourage, and enable women surgeons to realize their personal and professional goals.” The AWS Foundation is seeking nominations for the 2008 awards, which are available for women medical students, residents, and surgeons in practice. There is also an honorary member category for individuals who support the AWS mission and goals. Nominations are due May 1, 2008. Winners will receive their awards at the AWS Awards dinner, which will be held October 13 during the annual ACS Clinical Congress. Further details, application forms, and a full list of past recipients for each category are available at www.womensurgeons.org/foundation/ awards.htm. hen asking for the definition of “rural,” one may get many diverse and sometimes interesting replies. For some, rural is a state of mind, while for others, rural is a quantitative objective measure. There are currently 15 definitions of rural used by federal programs. Two of the most common classification systems are the U.S. Census Bureau’s definition of rural—open areas of country and settlements with fewer than 2,500 residents—and the Office of Management and Budget’s definitions of metropolitan and nonmetropolitan divisions. The Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture developed a set of county-level urban influence categories, and in 2003 used these codes to divide the 3,141 U.S. counties, county equivalents, and independent cities into 12 groups (www.ers.usda. gov/briefing/rurality/urbaninfl/). These codes can then be grouped into urban, suburban, rural, and wilderness. W There were 798,439 records with injury sites that could be matched up with urban influence codes for examining the occurrence of rural injuries in the National Trauma Data Bank Dataset 7.0. With the urban influence codes grouping, 67,632 of the injuries were classified as rural; 25,796 as wilderness; and the rest as urban and suburban. Of the 62,896 rural records with discharge status, 43,567 were discharged to home, 9,603 to acute care/rehabilitation, and 6,955 to nursing homes; 2,771 died. Victims were 63% male and on average 40.2 years of age; they had an average length of stay of 5.4 days, an ICU stay of 2.3 days, and an average injury severity score of 11.1. The definition of rural is not the only difference in rural trauma. Even though the trauma victim may sustain the same physiologic insult, rural hospitals have fewer resources, staffing, and available personnel than their urban or suburban counterparts. To improve the level of care provided to the injured patient in such areas, the Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Rural Trauma of the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma created the Rural Trauma Team Development Course (RTTDC). You can find more information on this course at www.facs.org/trauma/rttdc/ rttdcinfo.html. The full NTDB Annual Report Version 7.0 is available on the ACS Web site as a PDF and a PowerPoint presentation at www.ntdb.org. To submit your trauma center’s data, contact Melanie L. Neal at mneal@facs.org. Statistical support for this article has been provided by Sandra M. Goble, M.S. DR. FANTUS is director, trauma services, and chief, section of surgical critical care, Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, and clinical professor of surgery, University of Illinois College of Medicine, Chicago. He is chair of the ad hoc Trauma Registry Advisory Committee of the Committee on Trauma. DR. FOLEY is trauma director at Marshalltown Medical and Surgical Center, Marshalltown, Iowa. http://www.facs.org/trauma/rttdc/rttdcinfo.html http://www.ntdb.org http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/Rurality/UrbanInf/ http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/Rurality/UrbanInf/ http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/Rurality/UrbanInf/ http://www.womensurgeons.org/foundation/awards.htm

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Surgery News - April 2008 Contents Comorbidities Sway Bariatric Outcomes Database Finds Gap in Dissection For Melanoma Future Surgeon Shortage Predicted Dexterity Demo Best for Bile? Health Policy Scan Plan

Surgery News - April 2008

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