May 2006

Medical Staff Bulletin

Contents

Message from the Chief of Staff

In the last year, I have frequently written about major political barriers to the development of a new Cancer Center at Yale-New Haven Hospital. This initiative became ensnared in a corporate campaign by the Service Employees International Union to organize service workers at Yale-New Haven Hospital. As recently as a month ago, I was losing confidence that the Cancer Center would ever be developed in the size and scope proposed and subsequently approved by the Office of Health Care Access.

Everyone by now has heard that the Cancer Center/North Pavilion will go forth virtually according to the original design. The 14-story structure will provide new homes for Therapeutic Radiology, the Breast Center, Gynecologic Oncology, Medical Oncology and a host of other services related to cancer diagnosis and treatment. Construction of a connected building on Park Street will permit relocation and modernization of Laboratory Medicine; and new operating rooms and endoscopy labs, as well as inpatient nursing units, will greatly improve access to Yale-New Haven Hospital services.

New Haven Mayor John DeStefano and Yale-New Haven Hospital CEO Marna Borgstrom were instrumental in developing the accord that cleared the way for the Cancer Center construction. Many at Yale-New Haven Hospital –particularly Norman Roth, Vincent Petrini and Kyle Ballou – worked tirelessly to engage our community and address the many issues raised by the proposed construction. The resulting relationship should enhance our effort to work more collaboratively in the future.

I especially want to thank the Medical Staff of our hospital for unstinting support, advocacy and leadership over the last year. The broad commitment of the Medical Staff sent a clear message to all concerned that the interests of our patients should supercede all other agendas.

New executive VP, COO named at Yale-New Haven Hospital

Richard D’Aquila has been appointed executive vice president and chief operating officer at Yale-New Haven Hospital and executive vice president of Yale New Haven Health System, effective May 1. For the past six years, D’Aquila has served as senior vice president and chief operating officer of New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. He was previously executive vice president and chief operating officer at St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport, as well as president and CEO of their affiliated medical subsidiaries.

Brink named Chief, Chair of Diagnostic Radiology

James A. Brink, MD, has been appointed chief and chair of Diagnostic Radiology at Yale and Yale-New Haven Hospital, effective December 1, 2005, after serving as interim chief/chair since January 1, 2003. Dr. Brink, a nationally renowned clinical radiologist with a background in engineering, joined the faculty at Yale in 1997 as the vice chair for Clinical Affairs in Diagnostic Radiology. Brink’s research in the use of helical CT has established him as a world-renowned expert in this field. He has explored use of this technology in multiple organ systems and has helped find ways in which this technology can be used to diagnose colon cancer, renal artery stenosis and liver disease.

Performance management update

Below are Yale-New Haven Hospital’s December performance numbers for the set of measures we report to Medicare and JCAHO. In September 2005, three additional measures (appropriate antibiotic selection for pneumonia, antibiotic given one hour prior to surgery, and D/C of surgical antibiotics in 24 hours) were added, and we will be reporting these with January 2006 discharges.

The new reporting of Surgical Infection Prophylaxis (SIP) measures begins at a time when Yale-New Haven Hospital is undertaking two new surgical and perioperative quality improvement programs.

The first is the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP), a program sponsored by the American College of Surgeons that is a national, validated, outcomes-based, risk-adjusted program for the measurement and enhancement of surgical care. A nurse coordinator will be hired to provide support and data collection, and Dr. Rob Udelsman has asked Dr. Marc Lorber to act as the physician champion for the project.

The second is a perioperative patient safety project, modeled after the successful project in Obstetrics and to be initially focused in Neurosurgery. Drs. Veronica Chang and Keith Ruskin from Neurosurgery and Anesthesia, respectively, will be championing the project, and Jean Zimkus, RN, will join us from Bridgeport Hospital to provide project direction and coordination. Together, these two programs will provide us with another opportunity to further improve the high quality and safety in our surgical areas.

December 2005 Performance

Max Taffel Room

Sides C&D of the Max Taffel Room have historically been reserved for members of the Medical Staff during lunch. Unfortunately, due to the limited conference space available in the main hospital, we need to make this area available to the Internal Medicine residents Monday through Thursday to accommodate ACGME-required educational initiatives. We hope you understand. Feel free to use the East and North Pavilion cafeterias as well as the Atrium for lunchtime seating.

2006 Residency match

For the 2006 National Residency Matching Program (NRMP), Yale-New Haven Hospital listed 1,690 applicants for 175 residency positions and filled all in the match except four preliminary positions in Internal Medicine, all of which were filled with outstanding candidates within one hour in the scramble. Of the final matched students, 83 (47 percent) were women, 12 (7 percent) African Americans, 19 (6 percent) of Hispanic origin, and 17 (10 percent) are graduates of international medical schools. Yale-New Haven Hospital’s 2006 House Staff are coming from 83 U.S. medical colleges, including 17 from the Yale University School of Medicine, 15 from the three Boston schools and 27 from New York City schools.

Only about 66% of all residency positions offered are filled by U.S. medical graduates and 27% by international graduates. The adult primary care specialties continue to attract disproportionately fewer American graduates: Family Practice (41 percent), Internal Medicine (56 percent), and Primary Care Internal Medicine (56 percent), in addition to Psychiatry (62 percent). General Surgery continued its strong recruitment of U.S. seniors (83 percent).

Our General Surgery Residency Program has been awarded a status of full accreditation by the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), with a four-year cycle length. Drs. Udelsman, Longo and Seashore and all of the residents deserve hearty congratulations for accomplishing this task!

Moreover, we were very pleased to be awarded an increase in our Emergency Residency complement by two residents per year to bring our total program complement to 48 over the four-year program. Congratulations are to be extended to Drs. Bontempo, D’Onofrio and Jubanyik for this accomplishment!

Refer items for the next issue of Medical Staff Bulletin via phone, fax, e-mail or mail to:
Peter N. Herbert, MD
1063 Clinic Building
P: (203) 688-2604, F: (203) 688-7152
herbertpn@ynhh.org
or
Katie Murphy
Marketing & Communications
GB 443
P: (203) 688-2492, F: (203) 688-2491
Katie.Murphy@ynhh.org

Back issues of the Medical Staff Bulletin:

• March 2006
• January 2006
• December 2005
• November 2005
• September 2005
• August 2005
• June 2005
• March 2005
• January 2005
• December 2004
• November 2004
• October 2004
• September 2004
• July 2004
• June 2004
• May 2004
• April 2004
• March 2004
• February 2004
• January 2004
• January/February 2003
• October/November 2002
• August/September 2002
• April/May 2002
• February/March 2002
• January 2002
• November 2001
• July/August 2001

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Last revised: May 15, 2006 (mv)

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