Ask Alex

Comments and feedback about the categorical internship from PGY1s just finishing

Question: What feedback did the current interns provide about the internship?
Answer:
---"Very strong clinical training across all major specialties of medicine"
---"Strengths include patient complexity, diversity of hospital sites (VA, County hospital, Stanford), patient population and disease"
---"Do the internship if you want to learn medicine"
---"Good medicine training, everyone is very nice, many inpatient months with call"
---"Very great experience especially getting to know Stanford. The medicine department is very welcoming"
---"With a few small exceptions (preop instead of continuity clinic, 1 mth of anesthesia) you are treated just like all of the other medicine interns, which means you will work hard and learn a lot, and will get to know an awesome group of people all around the hospital"
---"Solid medicine foundation"
---"Great to already feel fully integrated to Stanford life"
---"Absolutely recommend the Stanford internship. The medicine interns work hard but its great learning. I got to know my co-interns"
---"A big strength is that we are treated exactly the same as other medicine interns. The administration is focused on learning. Well prepared. Worth it."

Congratulations Stanford Anesthesia class of 2015 graduates

The Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine at Stanford University is delighted to graduate 24 new anesthesiologists !

They are listed below with their next position. Congratulations.

Sarah Clark: Regional Anesthesia Fellowship, Northwestern
James Flaherty: Regional Fellowship, Virginia Mason
Lauren Friedman: Pain Fellowship, UCSF
Chrystina Jeter: Pain Fellowship, Stanford
Jason Johns: Regional Fellowship, Stanford
Stephanie Jones: Cardiac Fellowship, University of Washington
Stephen Kelleher: Pediatric Anesthesia Fellowship, Children’s Hospital, Boston
Barrett Larson: Industry and Attending, Stanford
Ken Lau: Private Practice, San Diego
James Li: Critical Care Fellowship, Stanford
Joshua Melvin: Private Practice, Sacramento
Chris Miller: Pediatric Anesthesia Fellowship, Stanford
Kristen Noon: Pain Fellowship, UCSD
Anil Panigrahi: Transfusion Fellowship, Stanford
Justin Pollock: Cardiac Fellowship, UCSD
Jennifer Potter: Regional Fellowship, University of Virginia
Chris Press: Cardiac Fellowship, Stanford
Amit Saxena: Attending, Stanford
Jan Sliwa: Cardiac Fellowship, Brigham and Women’s Hosp, Boston
Shaina Sonobe: Private Practice, Hawaii
Meghan Tieu: Attending, Stanford
Rachel Wang: Private Practice, Santa Cruz
Vicky Yin: Attending, Stanford
Jennifer Zocca: Pain Fellowship, Cornell

RWANDA February-March 2015 Christopher Miller MD, MPA CA-3 Anesthesia Resident

Senior resident Chris Miller just got back from a month in Rwanda. He has written the nice essay below to summarize his experience which I wanted to share with you. Thank you Alex

Thanks to exceptional support and the strong backing of the Department of Anesthesia, Perioperative and Pain Medicine at Stanford, my month long trip to Rwanda from February 7th to March 7th proved to be one the most educational experiences of my life, and for that I will be eternally grateful.

Starting in 1996, the Canadian Anesthesiologist’s Society International Education Foundation (CAS IEF) has had as its central mission the idea that safe, effective anesthesia and intensive care medicine should be available to all people, regardless of geography or financial ability. It was through this organization that a Stanford anesthesiologist and critical care medicine attending, Dr. Ana Crawford, and I traveled to Kigali, Rwanda with the goal of teaching and learning from the country’s anesthesia residents and anesthesia technicians. In a land of 14,000,000 people, there are currently 17 anesthesiologists, making the education of the current residents critical, as they will be charged with caring for hundreds of thousands of patients in their careers and will most certainly shape the future of the profession in their country.

During each of the four weeks we were in country, we followed the residents from hospital to hospital to teach intra-operatively as much as possible. Every Monday, however, was a full day of didactic teaching located at the main hospital in Kigali, granting us an opportunity to teach the entire residency class and structure our lessons to acknowledge their clinical strengths and improve on self-reported and observed weaknesses. Given that CAS IEF operates in Rwanda 12 months a year, a set curriculum had been developed to make sure all areas of anesthesiology are covered over the course of a resident’s four years of training. Our month was dedicated to critical care medicine, and we were able cover multiple topics, including: sepsis, fluid and vasopressor management, interpretation of EKGs, ventilator physiology, neuro-critical care and the skills involved with transthoracic echocardiography.

In addition to teaching the residents, we also had the opportunity to teach at the largest anesthesia technician school in the country, whose students are high school graduates who then participate in a 3-year anesthesia-training program and then graduate to provide the majority of anesthetics in Rwanda. Every Tuesday and Thursday we lectured on topics ranging from the management of Traumatic Brain Injury to Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, both of which are seen in exceedingly high numbers in Rwanda. In all situations and settings, we found residents and students with truly impressive dedication to their patients and education and were a joy to be with.

Our month ended in the Southwestern Province, teaching in a 3-day course on Obstetric Anesthesia and the management of critically ill pregnant women. A total of 30 participants (physicians, nurses, emergency department staff) completed this S.A.F.E. (Safer Anesthesia From Education) course and were then made responsible for teaching their colleagues throughout the next year with support from CAS IEF and their local hospital administration.

Without a doubt, this month was one of the most tremendous of my life and I am thankful for the opportunity. As CAS IEF and Stanford continue to support the advancement of anesthesia and critical care in Rwanda, further trips have been planned for this October and next February. I plan to pursue every chance to return to this incredible place and continue to push forward the educational objectives outlined by our Rwandan counterparts. Thank you!

Successful 2015 match results!

An article that just was published studied applicants' self-reported priorities in selecting a residency.(1)
The five factors with highest rating of importance were:
-- the program's ability to prepare residents for future training or position
-- resident esprit de corps
-- faculty availability and involvement in teaching
-- depth and breadth of faculty
-- variety of patients and clinical resources.

With that in mind happy to provide results of Match. A fabulous group overall.

CATEGORICAL INTERNS/RESIDENTS
NICOLE ARKIN, STANFORD UNIVERSITY
ROBERT ARRIGO, STANFORD UNIVERSITY
HANNAH BECHTOLD, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES
TYLER EWING, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS
KAITLIN FLANNERY, UNIVERSITY OF IOWA
ZENA KNIGHT, HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL
EMILY STOCKERT, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
BRIAN TSE, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES

ADVANCED RESIDENTS 2016
DAVID ALLAIN, LOUSIANA STATE UNIVERSITY, NEW ORLEANS
PANDORA CHUA, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
CLARITY COFFMAN, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO
CEDAR FOWLER, TUFTS UNIVERSITY
LEEANNE GRIFFITH, DREXEL UNIVERSITY
JAMES MCAVOY, UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT
PATRICK MINOT, UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO
LYNN NGAI, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
CHRISTOPHER RISHEL, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
JOSIANNA SCHWAN, UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO
JEFFREY SKANCHY, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS, HOUSTON
LINDSEY STEPHENS, MOUNT SINAI
ERIN STEWART, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

COMBINED INTERNAL MEDICINE/ANESTHESIA
NATALIE BODMER, UNIVERSITY OF ILLNOIS
TIFFANY LEE, UC IRVINE
ADAM TIAGONCE, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

COMBINED PEDIATRICS/ANESTHESIA
AIDEN TAIT, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO
MICHAEL O’HARA, RUTGERS NEW JERSEY MEDICAL SCHOOL

1. Roy Phitayakorn, E. A. Macklin, J. Goldsmith, and Debra F. Weinstein (2015) Applicants' Self-Reported Priorities in Selecting a Residency Program. Journal of Graduate Medical Education: March 2015, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 21-26.

Education Committee Meeting Highlights

Some highlights from the Education Committee Meeting

Announcements: Dr. Meredith Kan has been appointed Rotation Director of the Orthopedic Anesthesia elective. Dr. Tanaka welcomed Dr. Sheila Pai Cole as the newest member of the Education Committee. He also welcomed the newly named chief residents for 2015-16: Drs. Quentin Baca, Chris Clave & Amanda Kumar.

Publishing on Ether: Nicole Green from the Stanford Anesthesia Informatics and Media Lab (http://aim.stanford.edu/) updated the group on the education resources available at http://ether.stanford.edu/.
If anyone is interested in adding content or other functions to website please contact her.

Clinical Base Year: 8 categorical anesthesia interns complete a preliminary medicine year at Stanford. Every year some changes are made to improve the educational experience. Based on input from this yr’s interns several items were discussed and the following were agreed on for next year:
• replacing the 2 week geriatrics rotation with a 2 week elective (for example, TEE, acute pain, QI, Research, or perioperative medicine based on preference of intern)
• preferentially have the Anesthesia interns scheduled on rotations which are more relevant (e.g. Cardiology or Pulm consult) than others which may be less relevant (e.g. Rheumatology) when on non-call rotations.
• determine if it is possible that no jeopardy (cover for other intern unexpected absences) be allowed during the 4 week Anesthesia rotation
• add a faculty advisor (attending to be named this Spring) to act as another resource for interns beyond Drs. Tanaka, Harrison, Chu and the ImPRINT resident leaders.

Stanford Anesthesia Senior Resident Teaching Scholar: This is a resident leadership position in the Department of Anesthesiology with main goal to enhance the educational experience for residents and medical students. The appointment is for 12 months. Dr. Louise Wen was voted to be the Stanford Anesthesia Senior Resident Teaching Scholar for 2015-16, following in the footsteps of Dr. Chris Miller this year.

PRIME Scholars: Last year four Stanford Anesthesia residents were awarded PRIME (Peer Support and Resiliency In MEdicine Scholarship) funding to promote trainee wellness and resiliency. Drs. Lindsay Borg and Louise Wen updated the committee on their PRIME scholarship projects.
Dr. Borg surveyed all the Stanford housestaff across all departments for their mental health care needs. She now has the data and is currently analyzing it to identify barriers and potential solutions to access this care. She aims to publish the results working with her faculty advisor Dr. Mickey Trockel.

Dr. Wen’s project included attending a mindfulness and wellness course and bringing back the skills learned to the anesthesia interns. Four of the eleven sessions this year with the interns are wellness focused.

The two other awardees Drs. Chris Miller and Adam Was will update the committee later this Spring.

Transesophageal Echocardiography (TEE) Training: The residency would like to aim to have graduating residents have the knowledge and skills to pass the Basic exam (http://www.echoboards.org/content/basic-pte%C2%AE). It will be up to the individual resident to decide if they want to actually take the basic exam currently offered every two years and the next one is in 2016. Senior residents Drs. Sliwa and Potter presented 1) results of the needs assessment resident survey on TEE, and 2) their work under the mentorship of some of the cardiac anesthesia faculty to develop a web based TEE curriculum so it can be accessed by residents as needed. They will return in June to update committee on curriculum.

Medical Student Clerkship in Anesthesia at Stanford: Dr. Marianne Chen updated the committee on the medical student rotation. Some of the upcoming modifications to rotation include: 1) more formal first day orientation, 2) changing the student final evaluation to a mock oral type exam with an attending or senior resident, and 3) reinstating “Lunch and Learn” sessions were students present a topic to other students with faculty mentor present.

Update on some residency activities!

Faculty advisor meeting twice a year
An updated medhub form (https://stanford.medhub.com/functions/evaluations/index.mh?p=anes) has been created to document this mtg. The new Faculty Advisor job description is in Appendix A.

Chief Resident QI project
The GME Chief resident committee has sharps/exposure prevention as the QI project for the year. Suturing needles account for the majority of sharps exposures across the institution.
The Anesthesia Chief Residents surveyed the housestaff to better understand the problem. Suggestions mentioned include:
• More blunt needles for drawing up meds
• More sharps containers on wheels
• Getting rid of glass vials
• Self-capping TB needles for local anesthetic administration
• Anesthesia safe zone – a mayo stand dedicated with anesthesia line placement
These data are to be presented to GME Chief council with further system changes in hospital and OR to be discussed.

Resident Clinical Dashboard
Dr. Kadry has been working on creating a dashboard of data extracted from epic for residents to use that includes clinical data that housetaff can use to change and improve their practice. The data will also include procedures and cases performed. Residents in the committee agreed that these report cards are beneficial (great tool to discuss with advisor). Would like to do a trial run. The goal is to have report sent to house staff weekly starting in January.

Pediatric Anesthesia Rotation Update
Dr. Julie Mendoza is new rotation director for pediatric anesthesia. Orientation is held on the first day of rotation. Milestones are being updated with Dr. Adriano with special emphasis on delineating junior from senior resident milestones. The senior residents are asking for opportunity to do Peds before graduation so some senior rotation 4 week blocks may be broken into 2 week blocks.

Milestones
Dr. Adriano is working with rotation directors on milestones (http://acgme.org/acgmeweb/Portals/0/PDFs/Milestones/AnesthesiologyMilestones.pdf) as well as with their use by the Clinical Competence Committee. Levels of scoring (1-5) were reviewed as different from prior resident evaluation forms. The milestones assessments for each rotation may be modified by each rotation director to be more focused.

VA ICU
Dr. Brun updated the committee on the VA ICU rotation. Anesthesia are paired with an intern to provide supervisory and teaching opportunity. There are daily 1 hour lectures. Dr. Brun and ICU team are updating learning goals and objectives and milestones assessment instrument and aim to make that available to residents before the rotation.

New Program: the Stanford Anesthesia Innovation Lab (SAIL)
Dr. Barrett Larson CA3 is creating a new program which he will direct as faculty beginning next yr. The mission of SAIL is to drive medical device innovation and education in the Department of Anesthesiology. The goal is to create a community where innovation can flourish. The department has provided some seed funding.

Anatomy Sessions for Residents
Dr. Outterson presented a plan for use of prosection cadavers during lecture time so that residents can work on cadavers and learn anatomy especially for nerve blocks. She is working with Melissa Cuen to schedule this.

UC Irvine Airway Teaching Course
CA2s Lindsay Borg, Ann Ng, and Louise Wen and Fellow Tammy Wang were invited to teach an advanced airway workshop at the California Anesthesiology Medical Student Symposium hosted by UC Irvine. Kudos for a wonderful job. Residency fair was held as well.

Feedback tool
Dr. Tanaka has been working on mechanisms to increase feedback to residents by faculty. An easy medhub link is available at https://stanford.medhub.com/functions/evaluations/index.mh?p=anes
A trial pilot in the MSD was successful (one resident had 12 feedback entries) but it requires both attendings and residents to initiate feedback discussion and documentation. One way to start is to state that the following conversation is meant to be feedback.
The faculty can ask for the resident’s self-assessment of performance.
The faculty can tell the resident what they observed. “I saw/noticed/ observed…” and move on to “I am concerned/impressed…”
The faculty can inquire: “What was on your mind at the time?” “I wonder how you saw it?” and respond to the resident’s self-assessment and then formulate teaching point based on response to inquiry. Ask for resident’s understanding and strategies for improvement (action plan). Give suggestions, offer alternatives.

Libero lecture offered 3 times a day
A survey was distributed to the residents by CA2s Lena Scotto and Lindsay Borg to help assess the lecture series. The impression is that the lecture series is a valuable tool to help with preparing for the boards (has lessened study time on some topics) and want to make content more easily accessible on website on Ether by AIM Lab with slides and podcasts. Proposal to link each Libero lecture to keyword (title of Libero has to be the keyword). The keywords will be alphabetized. Clicking on each keyword will open a drop down menu with a link to the pdf of the PowerPoint presentation, an MP3 recording of the lecture (possible, need to pilot to see if it's going to be used), 2-3 flash cards (future addition).

Update Society of Academic Anesthesiology Association meeting
Dr. Adriano updated the committee of the SAAA in Chicago. A couple of items are that the BASIC Exam is now scheduled for Friday, June 12, and Saturday, June 13, per requests from Program Directors to move the original July dates forward to avoid creating scheduling challenges. Also, the regional anesthesia fellowship is likely to become an ACGME accredited fellowship.

Lead Apron QI Final Report
CA3 Dr. Wang summarized that an initial survey demonstrated that there was a need for more lead aprons (particularly in the Stanford MOR) and radiation safety education. With the support of Stanford OR management, many of the previously locked aprons were unlocked to increase availability. Also, the OR administration purchased 5 sets of small size aprons for anesthesiology use which are kept by the anesthesia techs. Dr. Wang also wrote a review article and designed a Powerpoint presentation on radiation safety which Tanya Travkina is incorporating into the EP rotation curriculum. These educational materials were distributed to the residents, and prelim results from a final survey show that residents feel that the lead apron situation has improved.

Chronic Pain rotation
Dr. Singh proposed and will be trialing a 1255-110 pm teaching session for the A2 faculty (faculty assigned to the resident in the chronic pain clinic) with protected time. She will report back in 6 months to see impact of this change.

Acute Pain Call
Currently the 2 acute and 2 chronic pain residents take q4 call from home on pain patients. There is an interest in having this resident be in house and with a full day after call to be able to respond to inpatient needs more quickly. This requires a call room which may not be readily available so will work with hospital to see if there are any options. Other resident call combinations are being studied. Also, a second NP is being hired to help with the work on the acute pain service.

Conference attendance
One of the metrics used for milestones is conference attendance. The committee discussed what an acceptable level of attendance would be given vacations, day after calls, etc and the group recommend 50% of grand rounds and 70% of the weekday didactic lectures as baseline minimum expectations for the residents in the MSD rotation. This will be measured starting next month.

Appendix A

Faculty Advisor Job Description
The faculty advisors are a core group of educators from the department faculty responsible for counseling and guiding the resident through residency processes and learning objectives.

Each faculty advisor has one resident per year (PGY 2, 3 and 4) of training. Having 3 resident advisees per attending allows the faculty to more easily gain advising expertise including evaluating milestone progression.

A meeting between advisor and resident occurs at least twice a year with completion of the online Medhub instrument (https://stanford.medhub.com/functions/evaluations/index.mh?p=anes) by the faculty advisor. A best practice is to send this Medhub instrument to the resident a week before the meeting so the resident can prepare for the meeting with their faculty advisor.

The meeting that occurs between the faculty advisor and resident advisee serves administratively as the Semi-Annual Meeting with Program Director. With more than 80 housestaff in the Stanford Anesthesia residency more individualized advising for each resident is possible from the faculty advisors.

Any resident is also free to ask to meet with any of the program directors at any time, and can ask to change faculty advisor if needed. A resident can have multiple faculty mentors, but a resident shall have a single faculty advisor at any one time.

The job description of the faculty advisor includes:
• Listener: please meet with each resident advisee at least twice a year to listen to any personal or professional concerns that residents have and to provide advice and guidance.
• Goal setter: please assist advisees in creating an individualized learning plan, including career goals, self-identified strengths and weaknesses, and explicit training objectives. For each objective, identify resources to help the resident and ideally determine how the resident will measure achievement. This goal setting function includes encouragement with respect to scholarship opportunities including research and QI. The Medhub form helps document and keep track of this.
• Residency planner: please work with advisees to plan educational activities related to specific learning needs (for example, a global health experience). Please make sure the resident is on track to complete all required rotations and surpass the minimum case requirements. Please promote self-directed learning and personalize the educational experience of trainees. This includes linking advisees with mentors (e.g., for planning for postresidency career).
• Evaluator and problem solver: examine monthly evaluations on the resident via medhub and review with residents to assess the trainee's educational progress and provide insights and feedback. If there are informal comments from other faculty about the resident, these will be provided to the advisor to discuss with the resident. Advisors assist trainees in identifying strategies for addressing any problem areas (as might be identified in milestones assessments by each rotation). Advisors, on occasion, need to work with the clinical competence committee and program director on corrective action or remediation plans. Please provide recognition for work well done by the resident.
• Collaborator and scholar: please work with other faculty advisors work to enhance all aspects of the residency. This includes working with the education committee on curriculum, assessment, and teaching methods. Please also disseminate any innovations you develop through local, regional, and national meetings such as the SEA or ASA.

Advisors are liaisons to the residency program director. Faculty advisor is a way to join the residency administrative team and build experience in advising.
Characteristics of an effective advisor include:
• honesty, integrity, enthusiasm, and patience
• open-minded
• a resident advocate
• have the respect of other residents and faculty
• possess a high level of emotional intelligence and well-developed organizational and time management skills

What Quality and Safety curriculum is there in the Stanford Anesthesia Residency?

QI activities are increasingly intertwined within the anesthesia residency as anesthesiologists are expected to be problem solvers in all hospital areas. For residents there are many available opportunities for example:

1) CA2 class QI program. The CA2 resident class is divided into 4 groups of 6-7 with each group tackling a QI project for 12-18 months. Dr. Ruth Fanning is the Faculty Director and leads one of the 4 groups. Dr. Sam Wald (OR Medical Director), Dr. Bryan Bohman (Chief Medical Officer for University HealthCare Alliance) and Dr. Tom Caruso (Pediatric anesthesia) lead the 3 other groups.

2) During residency an individual resident can propose to complete a QI project during their conference week time. Or, they can choose to complete IHI Open School Program QI/Patient Safety available at http://www.ihi.org/OFFERINGS/IHIOPENSCHOOL/Pages/default.aspx

3) 4 week Quality and Safety Rotation Elective is available.

FAQs

What percentage of stanford anesthesia residents participate in patient safety programs?

100 % of residents participate in simulation and immersive programs that are built around the principles of Crisis Resource Management. Over 70 % of medical errors causing patient harm result from poor non–technical or crisis resource management skills. Training in these skills has been shown to improve patient safety and outcomes.

100% of residents are versed in the use of cognitive aids and have through active participation and feedback, enhanced the implementation of these aids.

Within each core rotation, 100 % of residents participate in patient safety programs, evidence based clinical care pathways, and patient outcome improvement measures.
Examples include:
Universal protocol: All procedural sites, including operating rooms, radiology suites, endoscopy suites etc. All residents participate in “The universal protocol”, leading the anesthesia time–out, and actively participating in the general time-out protocol.

SCIP Measures: For example, all residents participate in complying with and documenting Core Measures. Antibiotic administration within a 1 hour window prior to incision typically lies at 98-100% compliance rate.

Sepsis bundles to reduce morbidity and mortality from sepsis: 100% of residents participate in the SEPSIS bundle for reducing CLABSI, adopting hand-washing and sterile barrier techniques for invasive line placement and management.

Safe Blood administration: 100 % of residents participate in safe blood administration practices which includes a two step verification process for cross matching blood and a two person checking system prior to blood administration.

Critical incident reporting, investigation and performance improvement: 100 % of residents are actively involved in critical incident reporting and exploration, during regular morbidity and mortality meetings led by Dr. Fanning.

What are examples of recent projects led by residents?

1. Standardizing and improving the ergonomics of the anesthesia medication and supply cart.
2. Radiation safety education and lead apron availability in the Stanford main OR suite
Both of these projects are being written up by the senior residents for publication.

Are stanford anesthesia housestaff taught basic QI methods?

All residents apply Root Cause Analysis, Failure Mode Effect Analysis to cases presented during Morbidity and Mortality meetings.

Residents have also been educated on, and have the ability to report adverse events through the institutional SAFE reporting system, or the departmental critical incident reporting system on the departmental website, ETHER, and the ASA based AQI reporting system. Approximately 30 % of residents will be involved in a SAFE report at some stage in their residency, through their involvement in a critical or patient safety incident. Residents involved will receive feedback on the incident, with suggestions for performance improvement opportunities.

How does the resident engage in perioperative care optimization for patients?

Residents play an active role in optimizing patients in the preoperative anesthesia clinic, and in managing postoperative problems in the PACU. Two residents actively manage patients in the preanesthesia clinic and 1 in the PACU, under attending supervision.

This perioperative care continues post-op where all residents complete the acute pain rotation, managing patients’ pain and comfort until hospital discharge. Perioperative pain management has been markedly improved through such Anesthesiology/Pain specialist-led acute pain programs.

100% of residents in the ICU rotation participate in the SEPSIS reduction initiative and Rapid Response Teams. Both initiatives have been shown to improve patient outcomes.

What QI committees do residents serve on?

1. the anesthesia dept Quality, Efficiency and Patient Satisfaction committee
2. the hospital Quality, Patient Safety and Effectiveness group
3. Resident Patient Safety Council
4. Care improvement committee
5. Medication SAFE report review committee
to name a few.

What percentage of residents participate in inter-professional clinical quality improvement programs to improve health outcomes?

All stanford anesthesia residents go through the required obstetric anesthesia rotation at Stanford during which they participate in “In-situ” inter-professional team-based simulations, both in obstetric and neonatal care teams and participate in interdisciplinary team rounds and huddles. Residents are actively involved in the multi-disciplinary high-risk patient care team, shown to improve the care of high-risk obstetric patients.

All residents also rotate through the pediatric anesthesia rotation at Packard Children's Hospital & participate in the interdisciplinary postoperative handover program known as IPASS, shown to improve handover communication and continuity in patient care. This year, multi- disciplinary in-situ simulation based team-training will be expanded.

100% or residents rotate through the acute pain rotation and are involved in multi-disciplinary care pathways shown to improve patient outcomes. One such program is the hip fracture care pathway, where residents place and manage peripheral nerve catheters in hip fracture patients.

100 % of residents rotate trough the ICU where they are involved in multidisciplinary rounds, Schwartz patient care rounds, and inter-disciplinary teams such as rapid response and outreach teams. All residents also participate in simulation based inter-disciplinary team training exercises, both in situ, and in the simulation suite.

Currently approximately 5 % of residents have participated in a multidisciplinary simulation based team training pilot program. Over the next year, all residents will participate in a hospital-wide interdisciplinary team-training program, “Transform”, fostering interdisciplinary team training with the aim of improving patient outcomes.

All residents play an active leadership role in inter-disciplinary teams during their PACU rotation, VA chief rotation, and/or Ambulatory surgery center perioperative management rotation. The residents gain valuable experience in leading inter-disciplinary teams to improve patient care, flow and efficiency.

What is the Chief resident QI project?
Every year the Chief Residents across the institution tackle a project. The GME Chief committee is working on sharps/exposure prevention as the project for the year.

Are there any post residency fellowship opportunities in QI and Safety?

Yes, the dept offers a QI postgraduate fellowship for residents after residency. Dr. Loren Riskin finished the program in 2014 and Dr. Christine Jette is the 2015 fellow.

Thanks to Dr. Fanning for compiling this list.

Thank you to our wonderful three Chief Residents: here are their short bios

Chrystina Jeter MD
Chrystina was born and raised in Bakersfield, CA and is the youngest of five children. After finishing high school, she left Bakersfield to attend the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She graduated with a major in Biology and a minor in Chemistry. After college, Chrystina spent 3 years working in HIV research at UCLA and healthcare IT at Kaiser Permanente. She attended medical school at UCLA and then moved north to Stanford for residency. She recently matched into the Pain Medicine fellowship at Stanford and is thrilled for the opportunity to spend another year in the bay area.
In her free time, she enjoys relaxing with her husband, Rich, and dog, Kona. She also enjoys traveling, reading, and watching movies.

Jason Johns MD
Jason was born and raised in the Mesa, Arizona area. He attended Arizona State University graduating with a degree in Biology while working in consumer banking at Chase Bank. After graduating he and his wife Annie moved to Chicago, Illinois so he could attend Loyola Medical School while Annie worked as a dental hygienist. Enjoying his time in the snow he subsequently stayed in the Chicago area doing a prelim medicine internship at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, Illinois. During his time in Chicago his first son was born, Bennett (5). After enough cold weather he chose to return to the west coast to do his anesthesia residency at Stanford. While here, his second child Cate (2) was born. Jason has an avid interest in regional anesthesia and will stay at Stanford to complete a regional anesthesia fellowship. When not at the hospital Jason can typically be found being a father and husband/enjoying family time. Jason does always enjoy sneaking in some time to golf, hike, fish, or experience new restaurants.

Christopher Press MD
Chris was born in southern California but lived in many places around the U.S. because of his father’s job. He did his undergraduate work at Emory University where he majored in Biology and Economics while competing at a National level as an NCAA swimmer. Upon graduation Chris took a couple years off to work at LABioMed as a research fellow. He then headed to New Orleans, LA for medical school at Tulane where he continued to stay active in all water sports. Chris was ecstatic to return to the West Coast for residency. He plans to stay at Stanford for a year of fellowship training in cardiac anesthesia and hopes to pursue a career in Northern California.

2015 Stanford Anesthesia Class Update

The current CA3 class has 25 residents that will graduate next June, and 16 (64%) are doing fellowships.

Four senior residents are headed for a regional anesthesia fellowship (Stanford, Northwestern, Virginia-Mason, and Duke), four have signed up for pain medicine fellowship (Stanford, UCSF, Cornell, and UCSD), four for cardiac anesthesia (Stanford, UCSD, Brigham, U of Washington), two for pediatric anesthesia (Stanford, Boston Children's) and one each in critical care medicine (Stanford) and transfusion medicine (Stanford).
Congratulations!

Thank you,
Alex

Fall 2014 Education Update

Here are some bullet points to update you on Stanford Anesthesia Education activities:

Record Libero daily lecture series:
The daily lectures series for residents in the Multispecialty division which began in July 2013 and offered 3 times each day has helped improve the MSD “overall teaching quality of rotation scores” as rated by the residents from 3.88 out of a maximum of 5 to 4.26 out of 5. CA2 residents Dr. Scotto and Borg are working with Dr. Tanaka to help write up a manuscript. Dr. Tanaka is trialing recording the lectures every day and web archiving for residents on other rotations but not clear how often would be watched.

VA ICU rotation:
The residents do 7-9 overnight calls per 4 wks (q3-4) and there have been no duty hr violations. When the resident is on call gain they gain more supervisory time with an intern as they care for the ICU patients.

Faculty Teaching Scholars:
This academic year there are 4 faculty teaching scholars who are awarded non-clinical time to develop their skills in teaching and education theory and to develop an education project.
Dr. Jung Hong from the Palo Alto VA presented his project related to developing a private practice curriculum that includes basic information on disability/malpractice insurance/financial planning/ home buying/proper case documentation. Dr. Hong will serve as a resource for interested senior residents to help with this transition. The project planned is to possibly create web based content based on input from recent graduates in private practice as to what is most useful. Currently, Dr. Hong is in the beginning stages of creating surveys for those in private practice.

A second faculty teaching scholar is Dr. Ethan McKenzie who is further developing the ENT teaching curriculum and formalizing the content to co-inside with the new milestones. There will be an eventual webpage including topics to teach to residents, targeted how to’s, intubation (fiberoptic for example) videos, links of evaluations to the resident’s medhub portfolio, and pre & post test questions.

Trauma Rotation Update:
The new trauma anesthesia rotation has rotation director Dr. Chris Painter. He is building curriculum including use of milestones for assessment.

The Faculty Advisor will have increased formal responsibilities including meeting with resident serving as the Semi-Annual Meeting with Program Director:
Each resident has a faculty advisor to counsel and guide the resident through the residency processes, procedures, and now the key learning milestones. Going forward the plan is to have each faculty have one resident per year PGY2, 3 and 4 of training, unlike now where some faculty have just one resident. Having 3 residents per attending will allow the faculty to more easily evaluate milestone progression, and report back to the clinical competence committee. The medhub instrument template for the meeting is being redone with the expectation that the mtg between advisor and resident will occur at least twice a year. The committee discussed ideas for formalizing when the meetings between resident and faculty advisor should occur. Any resident is also free to ask to meet with any of the program directors at any time.

ACGME Milestones:
The 30 different rotations in the residency have milestones based evaluations and curriculum which is available on medhub and sent to each resident before a rotation starts. The program directors are meeting with Dr. Steve Howard chair of the CCC to further determine how dashboard of milestones will be best utilized.